Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Vegetables

Sounds super boring right?  Chicken.  Potatoes.  Vegetables.  How does one celebrate this meal?  Well, for starters, the herbs, onion and lemon that you stick in the chicken make it so moist and flavorful, that it won't taste like the precooked roasted chicken you pick up at your grocery store, that you and I both know has been sitting under that heating lamp for a solid two hours.  Seriously.

Another one of my Food Network favs is "The Best Thing I Ever Made: (Insert whatever food they choose for this particular episode)".  This one was obviously chicken, and I personally have always been a bit intimidated by roasting my own chicken because I'm always afraid I'm either going to under cook it, or over cook it.  But, I am trying to take new steps this year, and so I jumped in head first, bought the chicken and took the advice of my Chef de Cuisine about temperature.  I suggest you use a meat thermometer, and you won't ever have to worry about over, or under cooking your chicken again.  What drew me to this recipe, was the use of shallots, and the way Marc Murphy sautes the endive with the chicken liquid.  It just sounded so homey and flavorful.  

Truth be told, the Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Vegetables was super easy, and super delicious.  The only thing that I did differently was place a bit of the chicken liquid in a pan and sauteed the endive separately, rather than keep it in the roasting pan.  I did this because I use stoneware, and I didn't want to put that on my stove burners.  But let me tell you, the flavors you get in this recipe will blow your mom's roasted chicken out of the water, and the best part is, you can use your chicken carcass to make your own chicken stock in a crock pot, where you can just leave it in the pot, and walk away for 12 hours.  Imagine the dinner possibilities with your own stock?  Amazing!