Whats For Dinner? Roasted Chicken & Mashed Potatoes, Thats What!!

As much as I love to cook, I often struggle with what to make for dinner. I have countless cook books and cooking magazines but a lot of the time, flipping though them I just feel uninspired and still sit there and question what to make for dinner. When I hit the grocery store this week I decided to get something that I haven't made in a long time; a whole chicken. I made up my own recipe and it seemed to be a complete sucess. Mr. Hunky at the entire thing! Seriously, there is no chicken left. Of course I ate some with him but for the most part, he devoured it. I paired it with mashed potatoes because lets face it, who doesn't love mashed potatoes? Heres how I did it...

For The Chicken You Will Need:

-A Whole Chicken (mine was 5.5lbs)
-Half of a Red Onion
-4 Green Onions
-4 Stalks of Celery
-A Handful of Baby Carrots
-A Lemon
-5 Chunks of Garlic
-2 Tablespoons of Unsalted Butter
-A Can of Chicken Broth
-Salt
-Pepper
-Garlic Powder
-Rosemary (dried)

What You Need to Do:

-Preheat the oven to 425* -Take out a baking pan large enough to hold your chicken and veggies and pour in half of the chicken broth
-Chop up your red onion, green onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and lemon.
-Take the yucky stuff out of your chicken and put it into your baking pan.
-Take 1 tablespoon of room temperature butter and spread it on the skin of the chicken making it as smooth as you can but it's fine if theres chunks too.
-Take half of the red onion, half of the green onion, half of the garlic and two slices of lemon and put it on the inside of the chicken. Also add the other tablespoon of soft butter and put it inside the chicken.
-Take the remaining onion (red and green), garlic, all of the celery and all of the carrots and place it around the chicken. Add the rest of the lemons around the chicken as well.
-Pour the remainder of the chicken broth over the veggies.
-Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary over the chicken and the veggies to taste (use your judgement).
-Once your oven is preheated, stick the chicken in for an hour and half or until the juices run clear when you cut into the chicken (this should be at 165-170 degrees in the chicken using a meat thermometer).

Your Chicken will take roughly an hour and a half to cook so set your kitchen timer. Once it's been in the oven for thirty minutes, I recommend to start peeling your potatoes. I used six potatoes but you can make as many or as little depending on your family size.

For The Potatoes You Will Need:

-6 Potatoes
-3 Tablespoons of Butter
-Milk (I always just start with a little and add depending on what texture you like)
-Salt
-Garlic Powder


What You Need To Do:

-Take a big pot and fill it halfway with water.
-Add Salt to make the water boil.
-Peel your potatoes and set them aside on a cutting board.
-When you are finished peeling, take a large knife and cut the potatoes into small pieces.

-Once the water is boiling, put the potatoes in and cook for about 40-45 minutes or until they are soft.
-Drain the water from the potatoes, putting the potatoes back into the same pot you used to cook them in.
-Take a potato masher and mash until there are no more clumps.
-Add your butter and mix until the butter is completely melted
-Add milk until you have the consistancy you want.
-Add salt and garlic powder to taste (we like a lot).

Once your chicken is ready to come out of the oven let it sit for just a few minutes to cool slightly before cutting. Serve your chicken with your mashed potatoes and vegetables!

Enjoy!!!

We Sure Did!!!