Roasted Potatoes with Chicken

We don't make this often enough. It was discovered in one of Frank's cookbooks on roasting, and was mentioned as a simple recipe to serve to company. It IS extremely simple to make, but since you turn your oven to 500 degrees, you have to have faith in the recipe the first time you try it. 


I recommend trying it for the first time on a lazy weekend. Not that you'll need the extra time, but so you can learn to trust the instructions in this recipe. After that, you'll be amazed at how incredibly delicious this is. 


And you'll want to invite your friends over just to make this for them.
Note about turning your oven to 500F: unless your oven is clean, you may want to turn on a fan or open a window. The crud in the oven will burn and smoke. This is the note in the roasting book, not a horror story from our kitchen. Really.


Ingredients:


Approx 3 lbs chicken, quartered, skin on
8 medium potatoes, any type, cleaned and quartered - we like the waxy Yukon Golds best for this recipe
2-3 yellow onions, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 parsnip, cleaned and sliced (you can omit this if you can't find it in the store, but it adds a fresh sweetness to the potatoes)
Fresh garlic, minced (You decide how much you like. We like a LOT, like maybe a whole bulb.)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste


Preheat oven to 500F. Oil a large baking pan and arrange the chicken in the pan. Tuck in any wing tips, if necessary.


Roast 10 minutes. Drizzle olive oil over the cut vegetables and toss to coat.


Remove chicken from the pan, add vegetables, arrange the chicken on top, season the whole thing to taste, and roast for about 30-40 more minutes.


Serve with salad. Makes fantastic leftovers.
You'll just wish you used more potatoes, trust me.