Roasted Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

So I thought it would be fun to do a roasted chicken for Sunday dinner. I thought it would be especially tasty to roast some of the veggies that I use whenever I make chicken stock after doing a full roasted chicken. Now, not only do I have roasted veggies to add to my chicken broth mixture, but the chicken came out extra flavorful! It was moist and wonderful! Here's what I did:

4 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic heads
1/2 cup water or chicken broth
1 4- to 5-pound chicken, rinsed and patted dry
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 lemon, quartered
A couple sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Arrange oven rack so that it is in center of oven.

Put chopped celery, onion, and carrots in bottom of roasting pan. Take one of the garlic heads, separate the cloves, smash and peel them. Put them in the bottom of the roasting pan with the other vegetables. Add water or chicken broth.

Place rinsed and dried chicken on roasting pan rack. Rub salt and pepper on the inside of the cavity. Take other garlic head and slice it horizontally through the cloves. Stuff the chicken with the garlic, lemon, thyme, and bay leaves. Rub outside of chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with more salt and pepper.

Roast chicken until it is deeply browned and juices run clear when thigh is pricked with a knife, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before carving.

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I served this chicken with those delicious Roasted Brussels Sprouts that I've made before. I added a little fresh thyme, and I added it to the oven toward the end of roasting the chicken.

I also made some cheesy garlic bread. It's just sliced Italian bread, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt, and topped with a shredded Italian cheese blend. I added it to the oven during the last 5 minutes of roasting the Brussels sprouts (the chicken was out by that time and resting).

The best thing about this meal? I was able to get everything out of the oven and on the table at the same time. It has taken me a lot of practice to get this right. So for any of you who think this looks good, especially for a potential meal for company, here was my meal timeline:

*Set up oven so that one rack is in the middle and one rack is all the way at the bottom.
*Put chicken in on middle rack. Set timer for 1 hour, 15 minutes.
*Set up Brussels sprouts and put on aluminum-foil-covered cookie sheet. 45 minutes into roasting chicken, put Brussels sprouts on bottom rack. Set timer for 45 minutes.
*Once chicken is ready to come out of the oven, pull it out, and move Brussels sprouts to middle rack. Move bottom rack up to the very top.
*5 minutes before Brussels sprouts are done, put cheesy garlic bread in on top rack.

Voilà! Everything's done at the same time, and you have a delicious meal to show for it.