Roast Chicken, Veggies & Cranberry Sauce

I looooovvvve roast chicken, its so comforting and delicious. It brings great memories of my mom making us roast chicken breasts with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was one of my favorite dinners that my mom used to make for us. Yum... my mouth is watering just thinking about it right now.

For Christmas last year I made an incredible cherry and chile-glazed ham and everyone raved about it, I have to say it was incredible. I found it in one of my Rachael Ray magazines and the recipe can be found here: Cherry & Chili Glazed Ham. I had extra glaze so I froze it because it was too tasty to waste. I used the leftover glaze on a whole roast chicken for dinner tonight. 

Ingredients
• Cherry Chili Glaze
• Garlic powder, Salt & Pepper
• 1 small onion, quartered plus 2 medium onions
• 2-3 springs fresh thyme & parsley
• 4 carrots
• 2-3 red potatoes
• EVOO
• 1 whole chicken

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and let the chicken set out on the counter to get the chill off. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.
2. Sprinkle the inside of the chicken with salt, pepper & garlic powder and add the small onion. Use string to tie the legs together so they stay put. Set aside.
3. Chop the rest of the veggies so that they are all the same approximate shape. Gently smash the garlic cloves to help to release some of their flavor while cooking. Toss the rest of the veggies with salt, pepper, thyme, parsley and EVOO. Spread out on the bottom of a foil lined pan. Season the outside of the bird with salt, pepper and olive oil. Place the chicken (legs and arms up) on top of the veggies.
4. Cook 20-30 minutes per pound. Remove from oven and baste the chicken with the chili cherry glaze during the last 15 minutes of cooking.
5. Cut up the chicken into 8 pieces and serve with roasted vegetables and cranberry sauce (recipe follows).

Roasted Veggies

I know it may seem easier to just buy a can of cranberry sauce, but once you make it yourself you will ask yourself why you did that for so long. It's incredibly easy and tastes so much better. The recipe can be found on the back of the bag of cranberries. I'd suggest around the holidays to pick up a few bags for 3 reasons 1) they are typically hard to find the rest of the year, 2) they are always buy one get one at my local grocery store and 3) you just toss the bag in the freezer and they'll be fine! Seems like a no brainer to me.

Ingredients
• 1 bag of fresh cranberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Bring water and sugar to a boil then add cranberries and boil gently for 10 minutes. Pour in a bowl and chill in fridge until it's time to eat! Q & I were never really big fans of cranberry sauce until we had it fresh like this so I'd recommend trying it even if you think you might not like it.

Yum!

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!!!