Roast Chicken with Orange and Fennel

There’s just something about baked chicken that makes my mouth water. This recipe is pretty easy, and makes a delicious, healthy, flavorful chicken.

Ingredients for the rub:

Zest of 1 orange

1 Tbsp of lemon zest

1/2-1/3 Cup of ground/finely chopped fresh rosemary and fresh sage (1/2 and 1/2), in order to make your life easier I’d use a food processor. I prefer more herbs, so I’d go with 1/2 cup, but if you’d like to lighten the flavor you can decrease it to 1/3 cup.

1 Tbsp fresh ground pepper

1 Tbsp salt

2 Cloves fresh garlic pressed

Combine the above ingredients to make a rub for the skin.

Ingredients for the pan:

1 Medium sized whole chicken*

1 Orange, sliced into quarters

1 Lemon, sliced into quarters

3-4 Tbsp olive oil

2 Sweet white onions sliced into half inch pieces

4 Full size carrots, cleaned, peeled and cut into 2-3 inch pieces

7-10 Small red skin potatoes cleaned

2 Fennel bulbs, sliced into half inch pieces

3 cloves garlic, cut up into chunks

2 Springs of fresh rosemary

5 Or so leaves of fresh sage

Feeds 4-6 people

*I also chose to roast a few additional chicken breasts which I used to make chicken salad with later. Check out my recipe for it here. Delish!

1. Using a large bowl, brine your whole chicken. If you need help with this check out my steps for brining. The purpose of brining your meat is to keep it moist.

2. When done brining, begin covering your chicken in the rub you’ve prepared. Use your (clean!) fingers to do this. And don’t be shy, if you can get underneath the skin – do it, it’ll help the flavor. Preheat your oven to 375. Use an oven safe thermometer to regulate the temperature of your chicken while it’s cooking. (When I made this I undercooked parts of the bird. This is never fun because undercooked chicken makes everyone nervous, especially the cook! Do yourself a favor, invest in an oven safe thermometer).

3. Place your carrots, fennel, onions, garlic, and potatoes in the pan (use one with 3 inch sides) and pour your olive oil on top. Mix them together so that the oil gets on everything. Add more oil if the veggies didn’t get enough. You don’t want them swimming in oil, but oil just keeps them from drying out. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Now add in your orange and lemon sections.

4. Place your chicken on a rack in the baking pan. Your veggies should fit on the sides or under the rack without being crushed. If they don’t, put some of them in a separate pan. This is actually a good practice because if your chicken takes over an hour to cook you will want to remove your veggies and cover them so that they don’t over cook.

5. Now place your thermometer in the chicken and place the pan in the oven. Put your timer on for 1 hour or less (depending on the size of your bird). I think this is a helpful website for learning the ins and outs of roasting chicken. Remember it may take a few extra minutes to cook your bird if you are also cooking veggies.

6. Check on your bird and veggies. I’d recommend planning to remove your veggies before your bird is done cooking. Typically the veggies won’t need more than 35-40 minutes. Use a fork to determine their tenderness. When you take them out is up to you.

Some of the men in my family aren’t big roast chicken fans. For them I make a sauce. In this case, you can simply make a gravy, or you can add some of my yummy chimichurri sauce to your chicken. For this bird you could also make a butter orange sauce by melting 3 Tbsp butter and mixing in the juice of half an orange, with some salt and pepper. It’s nothing fancy, but in my opinion a light sauce always helps white meat.

Enjoy!