Whole Roasted Chicken with Fall Vegetables

I love a whole roasted chicken in the fall but fully admit that I often just put the whole bird in the crock pot and let it slow cook all day since it's just easier and I don't have to worry about whether it's fully cooked or not. That said it just doesn't taste the same and I was really craving an oven roasted whole chicken. So I went looking on line.. and then made up my own recipe like I usually do. 

 

It took a bit longer to cook fully than I thought but it tasted SO good!  

This is the first time I have added vegetables to the pan with the chicken but it won't be the last.  

 

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash; peeled and cut into bite sized chunks

1 onion; cut large dice

1 12ounce package of button mushrooms; washed

5 1/2- 6 1/2 pound whole chicken; rinsed and pat dry (make sure to remove anything from the cavity

1 lemon; cut into quarters

 2-3 cloves of garlic; whole

Olive oil spray

salt and pepper to taste

Garlic powder to taste

Rosemary to taste

Thyme to taste 

 (I'd guess I used about a teaspoon or so of each herb/spice)

 

To make:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and lower rack so the bird will sit in the middle of the oven.  

First I laid out the squash, onion, and mushrooms in the bottom of my roasting pan. Then gave them a spritz of olive oil and sprinkled salt, pepper, and garlic salt over them all. 

Next, I stuffed the cavity of the chicken with the lemon and garlic cloves then set it atop the vegetables. I then sprinkled the skin with rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper.  

 

Cook for approximately an hour and 20 minutes (though our bird was 6 1/2 pounds and took closer to 2 hours). I started checking it at the hour 20 minute mark and then checked it every 10 minutes after that. You want the thickest part of the breast to read at least 160 on a meat thermometer. The juices should run clear. 

Once fully cooked let the chicken rest at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before slicing.  

It tasted just as good as it looks! 

The veggies were nice and tender but not mush like I feared. I thought the squash might just disintegrate when I tried taking it out of the pan but it didn't and the juice from the chicken gave all the veggies a nice flavor. If you don't like squash I could see carrots, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, beets-- basically any root vegetable working well. 

I cooked up some wild rice to go with it and we had a really yummy and healthy feeling meal. It really hit the spot on a cool fall night.