Herbed Roast Chicken

I saw this one on Rachel Ray and decided to try it. While it was cooking it smelled so good! I loved using all these fresh herbs and it really is a pretty simple recipe.

1 Whole Chicken
Fresh herbs like tarragon, parsley, thyme, etc.
Butter or Olive Oil

Roasting Veggies:
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Fresh Basil (optional)

Rosemary Garlic White Sauce:
3T butter
2T flour
1 C cream or milk
chicken stock
2 bulbs of fresh garlic
about 1/2 C fresh rosemary, chopped

Chop up your fresh rosemary. Slice about 1/4 of the bottom of the garlic bulb off (the rest of the bulb will stay in tact). Smash the side of bulb of garlic that you cut off into your rosemary pile and then drill liberally with olive oil. Wrap it in tin foil and roast it in the oven for about an hour. You will make the sauce with this later.

Prepare your potatoes - if you can find small ones, pour them on the bottom of you roasting pan. If not, cut them into the size of pieces you'd like. Cut the carrots into about the same size as your potatoes. Same thing goes for the onions, if you can find small ones, great, if not cut the onions into the same size pieces as your potatoes and carrots. Mix all this in the bottom of your roasting pan. I also added some fresh basil in the mix.

With the chicken, pull the skin away the meat (around the breast and also the legs) a bit and slip in your fresh herbs in between the skin and meat (I only had fresh tarragon and I loved it). Rachel Ray said to rub your bird down with butter - you probably could use some olive oil - and then salt and pepper. Place it on top of the veggies and cover with tin foil.

Bake at 375 for about an hour or till the juices run clear. Remove the tin foil after about 40 mins to allow the chicken to get some color. (I put my garlic in to roast at the same time as the chicken.)

Once the garlic is done, gently squeeze out the roasted garlic/rosemary into a bowl and set aside for the sauce.

For the sauce:
Melt 3 T butter in a sauce pan. Add about 2 T flour and cook to form a ball for about a minute. Slowly add 1 C of cream (or milk) while stirring. After that, add in chicken stalk until you reach the desired consistency of sauce you'd like. Add the garlic rosemary and stir into the sauce for about another minute.

Prepare:
Remove and cut your chicken into pieces. If you want to add some fresh spinach to your veggies and toss it around for a side salad you can. Top your chicken with the sauce.