In one of my “I’m going to teach my family a lesson” moments, I decided to refuse to grocery shop until we had eaten everything we already had on hand. I had just thrown out some rotten grapes, had a fridge full of apples, Greek yogurt, and carrot sticks but my kids were complaining that we had nothing to eat since they had consumed all the less healthy snacks days earlier.
This is how I came to a point of dinner desperation realizing I had only a roaster chicken, a bag of carrots, one onion, and some rice to work with for a family meal. My expectations were low since I wasn’t working from a recipe and had hardly any ingredients to work with.
Imagine my surprise when everyone in the family proclaimed this as one of their new favorite meals! Since I hadn’t expected the meal to turn out, I hadn’t taken any pictures of the process or the end result so I had to make it again last night so that I could share this remarkably simple and surprisingly delicious recipe with you.
My intention was to take a bunch of pictures during the process, but the truth is that there weren’t a lot of steps and none of them really required photography. You simply put the chicken in a roasting pan (after you’ve removed the bag full of giblets from the cavity). Toss in a bunch of baby carrots and diced onions. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with additional carrots and onions. I personally felt like I was violating the poor chicken, so if you feel guilty preparing this meal it’s okay–it’s part of the prep process. I also stuffed one tablespoon of butter in there for flavor.
Next I brushed the entire surface of the chicken with olive oil. Then, I sprinkled salt, pepper, garlic powder and Mrs. Dash Chicken Seasoning all over the chicken and the vegetables. Lastly, I poured white cooking wine into the cavity of the chicken and all over the chicken and carrots. Since I wasn’t trying to get the children drunk, I added water to make up the rest of the liquid rather than using the entire bottle of wine. This is what it looked like before I put it in the oven:
The only downside to this dish is that it has to bake for an hour and a half (or until the little built-in indicator pops up to let you know it’s done). Your house will smell scrumptious though! If you want a nice, moist chicken, make sure to baste it a few times during the cooking process. The result–a moist, roasted chicken full of flavor accompanied by tender, tasty carrots and onions. We served the chicken and veggies over brown rice and spooned some of the broth from the roasting pan over each serving.
Ingredients
- 1 5-6 lb roaster chicken
- 1 small bag of baby carrots
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 T black pepper
- 1 T garlic powder
- 1 T Mrs. Dash chicken seasoning
- 1/2 c white cooking wine
- 1/2 c water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Remove giblets from chicken. Place in roasting pan. Fill bottom of roasting pan and inside of chicken cavity with baby carrots and diced onion.
- Brush entire surface of the chicken with olive oil then sprinkle chicken and vegetables with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Mrs. Dash chicken seasoning.
- Pour cooking wine over chicken and vegetables, making sure to get some in the cavity of the chicken. Do the same with the water.
- Bake in 425 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.
I love a good roast chicken, great recipe!
This sounds so good! Definitely making this this winter!!!
OH looks delish!!! The 1 1/2 hour cooking would heat up my kitchen SO FAST i think this will be a winter recipe for me.
I know what you mean by refusing to go grocery shopping, I hate having to waste food! This looks delicious!
Oooh wow. It even looks great PRE-oven! I swear, I wish blogs had smell-0-vision …
I will have to try this with cornish game hens one night. Thanks for the recipe!
It makes me crazy to throw food away! I think your chicken sounds delicious! What a great way to used up what you have!
This looks really yummy. Great job on making a delicious meal from scratch. I love oven baked chicken & this seems simple enough for me to try it. My boys would definitely tear it up.
I think it’s great that you used ingredients that you already had in your pantry. We always end up wasting a lot of leftovers and fresh foods in the fridge and it’s really unnecessary. This teaches the family to use all the food that is available to prepare meals.
That looks amazing! I know what I am having for dinner tomorrow night!
Roasted chicken is one of my favorite things ever! Pinned this for later 🙂
Sounds good to me! All I usually do is remove giblets–stick garlic power, onion powder and paprika all over the skin and then bake till popper pops up! Yours sounds so much better!
I really like your idea of eating everything you have in the house first. I am going to have to do that too. I also really like the recipe. It is easy and simple to prepare while also looking and sounding delicious.
This looks delicious!!!! I love roasting a chicken for dinner, simple and always turns out great!
This is making me hungry! Thanks for spicing up a traditional recipe!
Oh my gosh! I love roasted chicken and this looks yummy!!
I can smell it from here. 😉 This does look simple and delicious and my family loves chicken.
Your meal sounds very good. I make chicken and rice at least once a week. My family would miss it if I did not.
Looks very yummy. A meal I definitely remember for the winter time. 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing!
I am using this for a turkey breast I am making today, perfect timing. Funny I did not know what I was going to do with it until I stumbled on this post.
I don’t think you can beat a roast chicken dinner and yours definitely looks delicious do you have room for a not so little one?
I love roasting a chicken. I normally do mine in my slow cooker with lots of fresh veggies and herbs.
I try really hard to keep an eye on what’s in the fridge so we don’t waste any food, but it happens.
Everything about this dish screams my name! I love how simple it is to bring deliciousness to the table!
I love making roast chicken and making 2 at a time for left overs too.
Oh yumms!! I bet the smell in your kitchen was divine!! 🙂
Glad you were able to pull something delicious off for dinner with few ingredients. I have also, on a few occasions, pointed out all of the healthy snacks and food in the fridge that we did have when I heard complaints that there wasn’t anything at all to eat. Refusing to go grocery shopping until everything has been consumed is a good plan.
What a simple easy way to cook chicken. I think the easier the better. Bet this tasted wonderful!… It sure looks good.