Easy Oven Roasted Whole Chicken with Asparagus & Saffron Rice

We’ve been cooking at home a lot these past three weeks, and I’m guessing you guys have been too. I’ve been getting more and more creative with our recipes and open to trying new things because, why the heck not!

Each month, our ButcherBox comes with a whole chicken. We do the custom box because I like getting a wider variety of meat (chicken, beef, pork and salmon!), and having it delivered to our door is amazing. I’m so grateful that I happened to join a month before Covid-19 hit because now, there’s a waitlist.

I would highly recommend joining though, once they open back up, pandemic or not, I think it’s a great deal. When we’re not eating every single meal at home, the custom box lasts our family of 3 a month (we’re going through it a little faster this month).

Everything is grass-fed, pasture-raised, wild-caught, heritage meats that are high-quality and delicious! The salmon and steaks are individually packaged too, which is so handy and easy for thawing.

Anyway, back to whole chicken! Whole chickens are not something I was regularly buying before, but when I saw that it was an option, I thought why not try something different!

We so easily get in ruts at home and buy the same dang boneless, skinless chicken breasts, it’s nice to change it up. I also love that with our custom box, I can change up my next order if I choose or add some add-ons like bacon or breakfast sausage if I want.

About a week ago, we made this for our Friday night dinner. It was easy, tasty and we had plenty of chicken leftovers, plus the leftover carcass that I always save to make homemade chicken stock with—can’t be wasting anything these days, right?!

If you’re looking for something different and easy, try this one out and let me know what you think!

Easy Oven Roasted Whole Chicken

Whole Roasted Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 whole chicken

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Spatchcock your chicken by cutting the backbone out and flattening. Rinse the chicken and pat dry.
3. Season the inside part of the chicken with salt and pepper. Combine spices and olive oil to make a paste and rub all over the top of the chicken.
4. Roast for 40-50 minutes, until internal temp in thickest part is 160 degrees. If it starts getting too browned, tent with foil.
5. When done, remove from oven and cover with foil, rest for 15 minutes before cutting.

Saffron Rice

Ingredients

• 2-3 pinches saffron threads
• 1/2 cup Jasmine rice
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. Add water, rice and saffron threads and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and let simmer, covered, for 15 minutes (or check ingredients on rice).
3. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork and serve.

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of asparagus
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions

1. Trim stalks of asparagus. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Roast in the same oven as chicken for 12 minutes, after you remove chicken from the oven.

I always love when you guys make my recipes and share with me, please tag me in your Instagrams and stories if you make it!

BTW, homemade healthy granola, and the BEST banana bread.