It's a new year! It's a new season! It's the time where we are going to SAVE ALL THE MONEY AND DO ALL THE EXERCISE AND EAT ALL THE VEGGIES AND LOSE ALL THE WEIGHT. 
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Maybe you are, I don't know. I'm not a resolutions person. I'm satisfied with mediocrity, frankly.
But! One thing I'm always working on improving is the desire to use everything my kitchen, reduce waste, and be more efficient when it comes to cooking. I'm kind of...ok about cooking most nights, but I take a long time and we eat late and that's great BUT on work days it's nice to have a few things in place to reduce the urge to do takeout, you know? Easy + healthy + way cheaper than ordering something is the name of my food resolution game, if I had one.
I actually wrote this for our local paper and it came out last week! It's 2 recipes for the price of one. You cook double of some roasted chicken and veggies on night 1, and you eat half. Then the next day the leftovers go into a super flavorful chili that basically gets a twice-cooked treatment, which gives great flavor to the leftovers. I like re-purposing leftovers rather than just heating them up - it can super duper shorten a recipe to have some ingredients already cooked and you don't end up with....warmed up leftovers that are way past their prime.
So this is night one! It's the most easy, most flavorful roast chicken dinner you'll ever have in your whole life. Unless you don't like lemon and/or root vegetables in which case....sorry?
You need bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. I did thighs and breasts, but you could do a whole chicken, all of one thing, whatever you'd like. You also need a lemon or 2, some beets, carrots, parsnips, butter, salt, and pepper. That's dinner! 
First, prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, and grab 2 cooling racks. We roast the chicken right over the veggies. Then, cut the veggies into cubes, 1-inch or so. 
Slice the lemon, too. 
Now, arrange the veggies evenly on the 2 baking sheets. Melt the butter, and drizzle ¼ of the butter over each pan of veggies, then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. 
Then we keep layering! Over each pan, add a baking rack. Place the chicken evenly on the rack, and stuff lemon slices under the chicken skin. YUM. 
Sprinkle the chicken with just salt, and drizzle the rest of the butter evenly over the chicken on both racks. 
Now we roast! 25-30 minutes until the veggies are tender and the chicken skin is browned and crispy. 
Dinner! Chicken + veggies with lemony drippings. WHAT THE HECK. 
It's so simple yet so good, and I have a gazillion ideas for this method (rack with meat over veggies) with different meat and flavor combinations. 
Eat 1 pan of this tonight. Tomorrow we use the leftover for chili. Enjoy! 
Recipe
Roasted Lemon Chicken + Root Vegetables
Ingredients
See quantity note below
- 6 medium-beets any color you like, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 carrots cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 parsnips cut into 1-inch chunks
- 10-12 pieces bone-in skin-on chicken, any cut you like
- 2 lemons sliced
- 1 stick butter melted
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh parsley chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- 1. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set out 2 metal cooling racks approximately the same size as the baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 400F.
- 2. Evenly divide the vegetables among the baking sheets in a single layer. Drizzle each pan of veggies with ¼ of the butter (half stick total), and sprinkle the vegetables with salt and pepper.
- 3. Place a wire cooling rack in each pan over the veggies. On each rack, place 6 pieces of chicken. Using your fingers, gently separate the chicken skin from the meat, and stuff lemon slices under the skin of each piece of chicken.
- 4. Wash your hands, then sprinkle the chicken all over with salt. Drizzle the rest of the butter evenly over the chicken pieces.
- 5. Place both pans of chicken and vegetables in the oven at 400F for 40 minutes, rotating the pans (if one is on a higher rack than the other) halfway through to ensure even cooking.
- 6. Serve one pan of chicken and veggies topped with fresh parsley. Reserve the other for the second recipe.
Notes
- Note: This is a 2-part recipe and HALF of this recipe will serve 4 people; the other half is used to make a second recipe (next post). If you'd like to only eat this once simply halve the quantities above.
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