The Aspiring Luddite

	I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

Roast Chicken with Summer Vegetables
18 August 2011 [Chicken Plated]

The simple pleasure of a roast chicken is hard to describe. If it's a good bird, you don't have to do a whole lot to it. Furthermore, it's a good size for two people, since you can get two solid meals out of it - and if you're lucky enough to have one who likes white meat and one who likes dark, there's not even any fighting involved.

In winter, I'll roast a chicken with root vegetables, but since this is summer and we're still getting lots of zucchini and yellow summer squash, I decided to use them instead. They cook faster than the chicken and since I didn't want them to completely break down, I decided to add them half-way or so through the cooking process.

[The Vegetables]

Roast Chicken with Summer Vegetables

1 whole chicken
2 each yellow summer squash, zucchini and eggplant (or some variation thereof)
1 green bell pepper
1 onion
salt and pepper
a drizzle of olive oil, a couple of Tbs

Slice the onion and put it in the bottom of your roasting dish. Dust the chicken with salt and pepper, place it on top of the onions, breast-down, drizzle on a bit of olive oil, and pop it into a 350F oven. If your dish is of the right shape and size, half-cover the chicken. Let it cook for an hour. [Half Covered]

Slice the rest of the vegetables. I find that for some vegetables, tomatoes chiefly, but also eggplant, a serrated knife is the way to go. (Discussing knives and knife preference is a different article, though.) When the chicken comes out, take it out of the dish, layer on the remaining vegetables, then replace the chicken. Half-cover again, and back in the oven for another half-hour. Then remove the lid, flip the chicken onto its back, and let it cook for another half-hour or so to let it brown up.

When serving, don't neglect to spoon the delicious juices over everything.

The Aspiring Luddite