It is really quite amazing what you can do with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and an extremely hot oven. Recently, I stopped in at my neighbor’s house to pick something up. I followed her in the kitchen as she said, “I just need to quickly throw dinner in the oven.” In minutes, she had tossed carrots, potatoes and a whole chicken in a roasting pan and dinner was prepped.

I love it when someone else’s quick, mindless dinner becomes your exciting discovery. It has been ages since I roasted a chicken! My talented, designerofficemate gave me a simple recipe for Lemon, Thyme and Garlic chicken, I rustled up the both the red potatoes and kale from my new organic,weekly delivery box, clipped a few fresh herbs and, “Voila!” … one of the fanciest, tastiest Tuesday night dinners I had served in ages.

p.s. I have always really wanted to like kale but only try to eat it for the health benefits. However, this is the first time I have tried it roasted and both my husband and I really, truly liked it! It becomes crunchy and breaks apart in your mouth. Fun texture, yummy and uber healthy.

Lemon, Thyme and Garlic Chicken
Whole Chicken
Bunch of fresh thyme
6-8 garlic cloves or crushed garlic
1 lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper

Remove anything that may have come inside your chicken. Cut lemon in a few large slices and put it inside the chicken. If you have whole garlic, peel and sprinkle the whole cloves around the pan. (these will taste great spread on bread after roasting) Otherwise, rub crushed garlic on the chicken. Sneak the thyme under the skin of the chicken. Rub whole chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 450 degrees with the lid of the roasting pan on for 30-40 minutes or until meat is cooked through. Remove lid for 10 minutes or so until skin is crispy.

Roasted Rosemary Red Potatoes
Red Potatoes
Olive Oil
Fresh chopped rosemary
salt and pepper

Cut potatoes in cubes. Put in a pan for roasting. Sprinkle with olive oil, rosemary and salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast in oven with chicken until browned on the outside and soft inside.

Roasted Kale
Kale
Olive Oil
Sea salt
Wash leaves and discard stems. Fold leaves in half to remove the tough stem all the way up the leaf. Spray or sprinkle with olive oil and toss to lightly coat. Lay on baking sheet and put in 450 degree oven. Roast for 5-7 minutes then remove and turn all the leaves. Roast for another 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with salt right as you remove the leaves from the oven. Kale will be crispy.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Main Dish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.