Easy Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Carrots

So I haven't posted here in almost two weeks...this time of year is crazy busy which hasn't left much time for anything beyond the basics.  Stuff like getting to practices and school on time, remembering to go to important end of school year activities, making sure all 6 family members have something clean to wear each day, maintaining a somewhat clean house during the chaos, starting the garden (we are falling a little behind here already), much less meal plan, grocery shop, and prepare delicious healthy meals.  Confession:  We ate McDonald's in the car on the way to wrestling one day last week. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do and this Mom was in survival mode.  But hey, roast chicken and healthy veggies balances it all out eventually, right?

To be honest, I have been relying a lot more on quick and easy meals lately.  Life is busy and as much as I love cooking, I am usually stretched pretty thin to get everything done.  That's why I love making a roast chicken.  It is so easy and delicious. 

 My favorite way to prepare it is with salt and pepper, butter, lemon, and fresh herbs.  I used sage this time because I already had some on hand.  I have made roast chicken with potatoes and with sweet potatoes and hands down the sweet potatoes are the best.  In fact they are amazing when baked with a chicken.  They are so tender soft and pair perfectly with the chicken.  Our kids LOVE carrots so I always put in a lot of carrots.  I don't even bother to peel them.  I just cut off the ends and set them in the pan around the chicken.  

So if you are busy like we are and need some easy dinner ideas give this roast chicken a try.  It takes a little while in the oven, but once it's in, you can do something else while is cooks.  And wow is it delicious!  Any Dads out there need a simple and amazing Mother's Day dinner idea?  Here it is.  You got this.  

​And don't forget to save the carcass (I know that's a gross word, but I gotta call it something) for the best homemade chicken noodle soup ever.  If you don't want soup in the next couple of days, just freeze the carcass for making soup later.    

Easy Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Carrots

Ingredients:
Whole chicken
Butter
Fresh herbs;  These go well with chicken.  thyme, rosemary, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, sage
1 lemon, sliced into rings
Fresh ground Salt & pepper
1 lb. carrots, cut off ends, but leave  whole
3 to 4 sweet potatoes, cut into chunks

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.  
2.  Prepare chicken, removing packet of organs from the inside cavity.  Discard or save for later use. Salt and pepper inside the chicken then put a pat or two of butter inside the cavity along with 2-3 lemon slices and some fresh herbs.  Set the chicken into a large dutch oven.  
3.  Pull back some of the exposed chicken skin over the breast.  Salt and pepper then stuff with a couple of pats of butter, lemon slices, and fresh herbs.  Place carrots and sweet potatoes around chicken.  Then salt everything and salt and pepper the chicken once more.  
4.  Place covered in the oven and bake about 1 hour and 15 minutes to an hour and 30 minutes until it reaches 165 degrees F on a meat thermometer.  
5.  Remove the lid and put under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the skin.  

Because I cook it with the lid on, the chicken is really tender and juicy, but won't have much color so I put it under the broiler for a few minutes before serving to brown and crisp the skin.  

Yum