Category: Foodie

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any food images so… this Hen was tender and juicy.  It’s a super easy meal to make, and since it’s a one pan meal clean up is quick.

Serve it with a salad, and some good bread.

 

Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables and Herb Butter

Ingredients:

1 4-5 lb Hen-

1 bag baby carrots, or 2-3 whole carrots cut up

2-3 potatoes- cut up I used russet

3-4 cloves of garlic- I left mine whole w/skin on

1 onion cut into wedges

1 lemon cut into wedges

Rosemary, Sage, and Basil mince enough to make a mixture of 4-6 tablespoons.

3TBS Butter – room temperature

salt and pepper

Olive Oil- enough to lightly coat the vegetables

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Rinse and pat dry the Hen.  Salt and Pepper both the cavity and outer skin.

Next mince the rosemary, sage, and basil. In a small bowl add the minced herbs and butter. Mix with fork until well combined.

Cut lemon, and onion into wedges set aside.  Smear half the butter mixture into the cavity of the Hen.  With the remaining butter mixture rub some under the breast skin being careful not to tear the skin, and rub some on the outer skin of the Hen.

Add a wedge or two of lemon and onion into the cavity then truss the bird, or tie the legs and set aside.  My trussing is all wrong! And, I don’t know how to tuck the wings correctly either.  But, whatever works right. 🙂 

Clean and peel the carrots, potatoes, and garlic. Cut the carrots and potatoes into bite size pieces. Mince, chop, or leave the garlic cloves whole.  Put all the vegetables into a roasting pan.  Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables, salt and pepper lightly then mix until all the vegetables are lightly coated with the olive oil.

Place the Hen in the roasting pan then put it into the oven.

Roast uncovered for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 400 degrees and cook for additional 40 minutes stirring the vegetables now and then.

A hen this size will take anywhere from 1 hour to 1h15m to cook. The internal temperature should be 165 degrees.

Rest for a few minutes then serve.  Option:  make gravy with the pan juices while the bird rests.

Are you hungry yet? 🙂

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| High ISO (1600) cause I hand-held it without additional lighting and I thought I could manage it sans a tripod| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…