Chicken:
1 Whole Roasting Chicken
2 Tablespoon Thyme
2 teaspoon Black Pepper
2 clove garlic, microplaned (smashed up into a paste if you don’t have a microplane)
1 medium lemon, zested then juiced
1 teaspoon Turmeric
2 teaspoon Chili Flake
3 Tablespoon room temperature Butter

Acorn Squash and Two Onions
1-2 Acorn Squash cut into rings, seeds removed
1 bundle large Green Onions, whole
1 small Yellow Onion, rough chopped
Salt, Pepper, Chili Flake to taste
Olive Oil

Instructions

Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees

1) In a small bowl combine the ingredients for the Chicken except the Chicken then rub generously into the Chicken skin all over.

2) Toss the Acorn Squash, Yellow and Green Onions on Olive Oil and season with Salt, Pepper, Chili Flakes to your preference.

3) Lay the Vegetables in the bottom of you roasting pan in an even layer, place the roasting rack on top of this and place the chicken in the rack.

4) Place in oven for about 35-45 minutes until done. I take my chicken out when the internal temperature is about 155 degrees, it will carry over to 165 while resting. If you’re not comfortable doing so then take the chicken out when it hits 165 degrees, you will lose moisture in the meat as it will carry over to about 170-175 degrees while resting though.

5) [optional] I like to take the juices and necks left over from all of this and mix into some mashed potatoes or steamed rice so nothing goes to waste.

Things I like to do when prepping a whole chicken.

1) Along the ribs on the back of the chicken poke through to the internal cavity. This allows built up juices and fat to drain out of the chicken and onto what you are roasting below instead of being poured out of the chicken later during carving.

2) Cross Hatch the fat along the back of the chicken, this helps the fat on the back to render out and drip down on what you have roasting below it.

3) Cut off as much excess fat and skin as possible from the neck and bottom opening, these deposits can slow down the cooking of the skin around them not letting them get to as crispy as possible.

4) Save all fat and skin trimmed from the chicken and freeze, at the end of the month put all these fat and skin trimmings in a pot of water (enough to cover with 1 inch) in an oven set to 275-300 degrees for 2-3 hours. This will render out the chicken fat (schmaltz) which can be used in many other recipes.