Garlic and Herb Roasted Chicken and Summer Vegetables

I am a sucker for roasted chicken, I'll admit.  In my opinion it is one of the most delicious, timeless and versatile dishes there is.  Roasting a whole chicken is ideal for a family or if you're looking for left overs to make into soup. I've found when cooking for two on a weeknight, I often scale back to roasting just the chicken breast pieces.  This ultra moist and flavorful method of rubbing softened butter studded with fresh garlic and herbs under the skin gives this roasted chicken a little something extra special (and decadent.)  Added bonus: the price of chicken on the bone is significantly less than the boring boneless, skinless variety.  Ironically they don't charge a premium for the added flavor (or calories).

Serves 3-4 (in our case 2 for dinner and left overs for lunch the next day)

3 split chicken breasts on the bone, with skin

3 tablespoons of softened/room temperature butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon of fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 teaspoon of fresh thyme, (I like lemon thyme) chopped

zest of one lemon

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

fresh cracked pepper

olive oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a baking sheet or roasting pan with foil for easy cleanup.  Pat the chicken dry with a papertowel and place on the pan.  Mash the butter, garlic, herbs, lemon zest and half the salt together in a small bowl. 

Using a small spatula (or your fingers), spread the herbed butter up under the skin of each chicken breast.  Drizzle the outer skin with olive oil to help it crisp and season with the remaining salt and lots of fresh cracked pepper.  Bake the chicken in the center of the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.  If its not as golden brown as you like, put it under the broiler for an extra minute or two at the end.

Meanwhile, prepare your veggies of choice for roasting.  I found some beautiful baby eggplants and zucchini at the farm stand and supplemented those with red bell peppers and cherry tomatoes from my garden (well pots really) and half a red onion from the fridge.

Clean the vegetables and cut them all into a rough one inch dice.  (Keep the tomatoes to the side for now.) Toss the vegetables with some olive oil, some fresh rosemary and thyme if you have extra and some salt and pepper.  Spread on a baking sheet (lined with nonstick sprayed foil) and roast in the oven below the chicken for 25 minutes (or until tender).  Take them out after 15 minutes and toss them around so they'll brown evenly.  Add the cherry tomatoes to the pan for the last 10 minutes.  I tossed the vegetables with some fresh basil just before serving.

Let the chicken rest 10 minutes before removing it from the bone (run a knife along the bone to free the whole breast) and slicing it into pieces.  You can serve the skin or easily remove it.  It has great flavor but so does the chicken at this point as the garlic-herb butter has slowly basted it while cooking.

Serve the chicken (you'll find you don't need a whole breast for each person- slicing it before serving allows you to take just what you want) with a generous scoop of roasted vegetables and a piece of toasted french bread.   I keep a bottle of reduced balsamic syrup in the pantry to which I am currently addicted.  I like to drizzle it over the roasted vegetables here - although a splash of regular balsamic vinegar would be good too.  Simple but delicious...and even better yet with a big glass of red wine.