# Whole Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

Whole Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables — a medium recipe with 6 main ingredients, ready in about 1 hr 30 min and serving 4. Check which of its ingredients are on sale at grocery stores near you.

- **Time:** 1 hr 30 min
- **Serves:** 4
- **Difficulty:** medium
- **Tags:** dinner, chicken, gluten-free
- **Source:** https://savingrecipes.com/recipes/roast-chicken-dinner

## Ingredients

- 1 whole chicken (4 lb)
- 1 lb carrots
- 1 lb potatoes
- 1 onion
- 1 lemon
- Butter & fresh herbs
- Salt & pepper _(pantry staple)_
- 2 tbsp olive oil _(pantry staple)_

## Instructions

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Pat chicken dry; rub with butter, salt, and stuff with lemon.
2. Scatter chunked vegetables in a roasting pan, set chicken on top.
3. Roast 70–80 min to 165°F in the thigh; rest 10 min before carving.

## Tips

- Dry the skin thoroughly and salt it ahead — even an hour uncovered in the fridge makes a visible difference. Wet skin steams and never crisps.
- Take the temperature in the thigh, not the breast, and look for 165°F. The thigh cooks last, and by the time it's done the breast will be too.
- Rest it 10–15 minutes before carving. Cutting straight away loses a surprising amount of juice onto the board.

## Substitutions

- **Whole chicken:** A spatchcocked bird (backbone removed, pressed flat) roasts in about 45 minutes instead of 80 and cooks more evenly.
- **Root vegetables:** Anything that roasts in an hour — parsnips, swede, fennel, shallots. Cut everything to a similar size.
- **Butter:** Olive oil works and is dairy-free; butter browns the skin more deeply.
- **Lemon in the cavity:** Half an onion, a head of garlic, or a bunch of herbs. Aromatics inside matter far less than salt on the outside.

## Storage & reheating

Keeps 4 days refrigerated. Strip the carcass the same day and simmer the bones an hour for stock — that's the base for the chicken noodle soup. Cooked meat freezes 3 months off the bone.

## Common questions

### Should I truss it?

It gives a neater result but slightly slows the thighs. For even cooking, leaving the legs loose is arguably better. It's mostly cosmetic.

### Breast up or breast down?

Breast up is standard and looks best. Starting breast-down for 30 minutes then flipping gives juicier breast meat at the cost of appearance.

### Why is my chicken pale?

Oven not hot enough, skin not dry, or too much liquid in the pan. 425°F, dry skin, and vegetables that aren't packed tightly.


_Photo: HaJunkiyada — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liat_Portal_for_Foodie_Disorder_-_Roasted_chicken_with_vegetables_and_white_rice.jpg)_