Winter Roast Chicken

I love roasting chicken. First, it's simpler to make than you would think but looks pretty impressive to guests. Second you get a ton of leftover chicken so it's great to make it on a Sunday, and use those leftovers for meals for that week. You could even roast 2 at the same time without double the effort. It's also so versatile! You can season the chicken itself with so many different spices and herbs, you can roast it along with different vegetables and make it a seasonal meal. And c'mon... chicken is so good!
I made this chicken following the same recipe I usually follow, all I did to make it a "winter" meal is put some different herbs in the chicken, and the vegetables were mostly root veggies and I even added an apple. So I guess it's a sort of fall/winter thang. Whatever you wanna call it, just know it's delicious. Let me show you how simple it is.

Ingredients
For chicken
-5-6lb chicken. I prefer using organic.

-2 garlic cloves, minced. Plus a whole head of garlic cut in half.
-1 whole lemon, cut into 4 slices.
-A few leaves of sage, as much as you like really.
-3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, at room temperature.
-Salt and pepper to taste
For veggies
This will really depend on what you like and how much you want to have for leftovers. I used:
-1 sweet potato
-3 regular potatoes (try to get organic potatoes if you can)
-1 fennel bulb
-2 apples (also organic if you can)
-3 onions
-4 carrots
-3 parsnips
-Salt and pepper to taste
-Extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
-Preheat oven to 425F.

-Place your chicken on a plate lined with paper towels, take the giblets out of the chicken if there are any and then pat your chicken dry with more paper towels. Set aside.

-Cut up all your veggies about the same size. Drizzle the bottom of your roasting pan with a little bit of olive oil, place your veggies in there and then season with salt and pepper and drizzle a little bit more olive oil.

-In a small bowl, mix up your butter, sage, minced garlic, salt and pepper.

-Place half of this mixture underneath the skin of the entire chicken breast. You can do this by carefully separating the skin from the meat with your fingers. Then spread the rest of the butter mixture on top of the breast and over the legs. Place the entire head of garlic cut in half and the lemon slices in the cavity of the chicken. Wash your hands, tie up the legs and tuck the wings under the chicken. Place the chicken over the veggies and season the entire thing with a bit more salt and pepper.

-Bake the chicken for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. To make sure it's cooked through, use a meat thermometer and place it between the thigh and the body of the chicken. The temperature should read 170F. Remove from the oven and place some aluminum foil over the chicken and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving.

-If you need help figuring out how to carve the chicken, this video is very helpful.