Sunday Roast Chicken

Back in the days when farm wives raised backyard birds and needed the eggs, chicken was expensive and often (at least in nostalgia) a specialty reserved for Sunday dinner with the family. We get our birds delivered form a poultry CSA where they are pasture raised and come full of the rich flavor supermarket birds seem to have forgotten. With meat this good it doesn't take much to make a memorable meal.

I stuffed the cavity of the chicken with lemon slices, garlic cloves, thyme, S&P, and marjoram and trussed it up tight. I rubbed olive oil into the skin, sprinkled with salt and pepper and popped the bird into a 350º oven. After 20 minutes of roasting I added in a mix of vegetables -- peeled sweet potatoes, sunchokes, celery root, and leeks -- tossed with thyme, S&P, and olive oil to the roasting pan. And basted the bird with more olive oil.

After an hour we had an easy to make chicken dinner with old-fashioned flavor.