Have you ever been stressed out about how much time cooking takes? The key to quick and easy meals during the week is to prep ahead of time.. enter roast chicken. This no-fuss method ensures a perfectly cooked roast chicken that is a great base for recipes during the week.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes/lb. of chicken
Total Time: 58 minutes (my chicken was 4 pounds)
Servings: 4 or more
Ingredients:
1 chicken, whole, room temperature
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 lemon, quartered
1 orange, quartered
Thyme
1 bag of mini potatoes, halved
Vegetables to roast such as carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, etc.
Photo by Helena Lin
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and arrange the rack in the middle.
2. Begin by patting your chicken dry with a paper towel. Make sure to dry the body cavity as well.
Photo by Helena Lin
3. Season the body cavity generously with salt and pepper.
Optional: herbs of your choice may be added to the cavity at this point. I used a couple gloves of garlic and half of an onion.
Photo by Helena Lin
4. Place the chicken on a roasting pan, baking sheet, or oven proof sauté pan.
Optional: Roast any vegetables of your choice along side the chicken. I used 1 bag of mini potatoes, the remaining half onion, and some garlic, which was seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil.
Photo by Helena Lin
5. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and rub it evenly all over the skin.
Photo by Helena Lin
6. Roast for 12 minutes per pound of meat. My chicken was 4 pounds, so I roasted it for 48 minutes.
7. Place the chicken on a plate and rest for 10 minutes.
Photo by Helena Lin
Here are just some of the meals I made from the roast chicken:
Roast Chicken Meal
Photo by Helena Lin
For my first meal, I ate some freshly roasted chicken with a side of potatoes and sautéed broccoli.
“Breakfast” Tacos
Photo by Helena Lin
Chop up some leftover potatoes and chicken, heat with Mexican spices and scramble in two eggs. Serve over a warm tortilla, topped with cheese, avocado and a side of red cabbage slaw for a tac0-licious lunch of champions.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Photo by Helena Lin
I made 1 serving of Gordon’s Ramsay’s Chicken Tikka Masala and adapted it slightly for faster cooking. I used a microplane to grate the garlic and ginger, used crushed tomatoes instead of diced, and minced the onions very finely. This allowed me to skip step 5 of the recipe, as I no longer needed to blend the tomatoes and onions to form a sauce.
I then added the chicken with the yogurt, heating just until the chicken was hot.
Chicken and Dumplings
Photo by Helena Lin
I have always been fascinated with what chicken and dumplings is, so I decided to make myself a big hot bowl of it to combat the cold Montreal weather. I adapted Martha Stewart’s recipe by making a quarter recipe, added some Napa cabbage, and garnished the soup with scallions.
Chicken Quesadillas
Photo by Helena Lin
Since I already had avocados, cheese and tortillas on hand, I decided to make some Chicken Quesadillas by shredding some of my roast chicken breast. Then I cut up avocado, topped it with shredded cheese, and served it with some sour cream and lime for a late night study snack.
Cauliflower and Chicken Fried Rice
Photo by Helena Lin
What better way to utilize leftovers than fried rice? To start, I sautéed carrots, onions, broccoli, corn and roast chicken with some hoisin sauce. Then I added my cauliflower rice and finished the dish with a fried egg and some fresh scallions.
Pro tips:
- Debone the chicken after roasting so that it is ready to use for the rest of the week.
- Keep the chicken in as large of chunks as possible to increase its versatility in recipes.
- The leftover roast chicken can be incorporated into virtually any chicken recipe, the trick is to only heat through the chicken so the texture doesn’t become mushy.
So, what will you be making with your roast chicken?
Don’t be a chicken, read more about chicken: