Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables

Learn how to make juicy, flavorful, golden-skinned roasted chicken every time! Roasted on a bed of caramelized root vegetables, this one-pan meal is an essential recipe for any home cook.

What Makes a Really Good Roast Chicken?

There’s nothing quite like the comforting aroma of a chicken roasting on a chilly night. For me, a well-roasted chicken dinner has three essential qualities:

1. Juicy, flavorful meat that’s evenly cooked in both the breast and thigh.
2. Buttery, golden skin with plenty of crispiness.
3. A bed of caramelized root vegetables that bathe in the delicious, buttery pan drippings, creating a satisfying one-pan meal.

Despite my love for roasted chicken today, the journey to mastering it wasn’t easy. Early on, I struggled to get consistent results. What seemed like a simple dish often left me frustrated, with lackluster meat that made me want to drown everything in gravy.

Many home cooks have shared similar struggles with me. I’d follow recipes meticulously, only to find pink juices on the cutting board after carving what appeared to be a perfect bird. Doubting my thermometer, I’d return the chicken to the oven, but by the time the legs were fully cooked, the breast meat was dry and disappointing.

Everything changed when I read Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home {affiliate link} back in 2009. I realized that I had been making critical mistakes: not prepping the bird properly, roasting it at too low a temperature for too long, and fussing over it too much while it cooked.

Chef Keller’s approach is straightforward: a high-temperature roasting method that yields an evenly cooked bird in just over an hour. The results were everything I’d been missing in my chickens—juicy, tender meat with crisp skin that needed no gravy.

Over the years, I’ve used Keller’s techniques as a springboard to create a roasted chicken dinner that’s become a staple in my household. Here’s how I do it.

What You’ll Need

• Whole Chicken. Choose a quality bird–I like to shop at local farms whenever possible! If buying from a grocery store, look for organic, air-chilled chickens. Stick to a 4 to 4½-pound bird for this high-heat cooking method.
• Garlic Cloves. Peel and leave them whole. Roast half with the vegetables, and place the rest inside the chicken cavity to infuse the bird with a subtle garlic flavor.
• Unsalted Butter. You’ll use half of the quantity to make a compound herb butter to rub under the chicken’s skin and half to lay on the outside of the bird. Soften the butter for easy mixing and spreading.
• Fresh Herbs. I most often use chopped thyme and flat-leaf parsley in my compound butter, but you can create a mix of any of your favorite herbs, such as rosemary, sage, or marjoram. For extra flavor, add whole thyme sprigs to the chicken cavity and to the root vegetables.
• Mixed Root Vegetables. Use small red-skinned potatoes (unpeeled and whole), yellow onion (quartered), baby carrots, and peeled, wedged turnips and rutabagas. You can also substitute parsnips, rainbow carrots, sweet potatoes, or yams.
• Vegetable or Canola Oil. Toss with the veggies and rub on the chicken’s skin to help develop a golden, crispy finish.
• Kosher Salt and Freshly-Ground Black Pepper. I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, but you can also use fine sea salt.

Equipment: You’ll need a large roasting pan (no lid), a small piece of kitchen twine, and an instant-read thermometer to check for doneness. I like to use a cast iron pan (pictured) for the best heat distribution and caramelization of the vegetables.

Since you’re roasting a mid-sized bird for this recipe, you can also use a large cast iron skillet. When I do this, I like to use a 12-inch to accommodate the veggies.

Step 1: Prepping the Chicken

Start by checking the chicken’s cavity for a packet of giblets. Not all chickens come with giblets, but if yours does, remove the packet before roasting.

Wondering what to do with the bag of giblets? Check out What are Giblets and How are They Used? from The Spruce Eats. When our chicken comes with livers, we like to sauté them in butter for a tasty morsel.

Next, inspect the chicken’s outside for stray pinfeathers. I find that these are more common in chickens from local farms. If you spot any, use a pair of kitchen tweezers to pluck them out easily.

For easier carving later, you have the option to remove the wishbone before roasting. To do this, simply run your knife along the meat surrounding the bone, then gently twist and pull it out with your fingers. While optional, this step makes carving the roasted breast meat neater.

For the crispiest skin and most even cooking, I follow Keller’s lead and let the chicken sit at room temperature for 1-1/2 to 2 hours before roasting.

Step 2: Seasoning the Chicken

Season Between the Skin and Breast Meat: In a small bowl, mix half of the softened butter with chopped fresh herbs. Carefully slide your fingers between the skin and the breast meat to loosen the skin without tearing it. Rub the compound butter directly onto the breast meat under the skin.

This step (a departure from the Ad Hoc recipe) adds moisture and flavor, keeping the meat juicy as it roasts. While this technique does result in slightly less crispy skin over the breast meat, my family loves the flavor it adds.

Season From the Inside: Rub the cavity with 4 whole garlic cloves and a few sprigs of fresh thyme to infuse it with aromatic flavor as it roasts. For a citrusy twist, you can also add a couple of lemon, lime, or orange wedges.

Instead of fully trussing the chicken after seasoning the cavity, I simply tuck the wing tips under the body and loosely tie the legs together with kitchen twine.

Season On the Outside: For beautiful bronzing in the oven, I again take a cue from Keller and rub the entire exterior of the chicken with canola or vegetable oil. Then, generously season it with kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper. Don’t be shy with the seasonings here!

Step 3: Preparing the Pan for Roasting

Simply toss the prepped root veggies with vegetable or canola oil, fresh thyme, and the remaining whole, peeled garlic cloves. Season everything with salt and pepper. Spread the vegetables evenly across the bottom of your roasting pan, then place the chicken on top, nestled into the vegetables.

Love root veggies? Don’t miss my recipes for standalone Roasted Root Vegetables and maple-glazed Air Fryer Root Vegetables.

Before placing the pan in the oven, add the remaining unsalted butter on top of the chicken breast. This final touch of butter helps to keep the meat moist throughout cooking–no need to worry about basting.

Step 4: Roasting the Chicken

For a perfect roast, you’ll use a 2-stage cooking process. Start by placing the pan in a preheated 475°F oven for 25 minutes. Similar in theory to searing meat on the stove, this initial heat helps to render the fat in the skin, seal in the juices, and develop a golden color.

After 25 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 400°F and continue roasting for another 45 to 50 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked.

Remove the chicken from the oven and let it rest on a carving board for about 15 minutes for the juices to redistribute. This step is key for a juicy bird. As tempting as it is do dig right in, resist the urge and let it rest!

By the end of the roasting time, your vegetables will have caramelized beautifully, especially if you used a cast iron roasting pan. Sometimes, I find that the vegetables directly under the chicken are a little less “done” than those around the edges. If needed, you can pop them back in the oven to finish caramelizing while the chicken rests.

How to Tell When Roasted Chicken is Done

The best way to tell if a chicken is fully roasted is to use an instant-read thermometer. Probe the meat in the thickest part of the thigh, away from the bone. The chicken is done when the temperature reads at least 165°F.

There are mixed opinions on whether the age-old adage of the “juices running clear” should be an indicator of doneness. I still use it as a backup to my thermometer. While pink juices are something I look for when I roast beef, I don’t like to see them from chicken. Old habits die hard!

If the chicken isn’t up to temperature by the end of the second cooking stage, continue roasting at 400 degrees F. Depending on how far off from the target temperature you are, check for doneness about every 5 minutes.

Alternate Recipe: Looking for a chicken with shatteringly crisp skin and no root vegetables? Thomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken is a recipe to keep!

Our Favorite Ways to Use Leftover Roasted Chicken

• Cranberry Chicken Salad with Walnuts
• Chicken Gnocchi Soup
• Mandarin Orange Chicken Salad
• Harvest Cobb Salad
• Tetrazzini (written for turkey, but also works substituting chicken)

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This post was originally published on Striped Spatula in 2013 and updated in 2019 and 2024 with new photos and notes.

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