Roasted Chicken with Winter Vegetagles
By: Giangi Townsend
Published: Monday, December 12, 2011 - 7:47pm

Ingredients




large carrots, peeled
1 large turnip, peeled
1 large parsnip, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 small acorn squash, peeled
2 generous tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Thyme
4 leg quarters
6 to 8 cups chicken stock

Preparation

1 Preheat oven at 425º. In a cookie sheet place 4 leg quarters, salt and pepper and place in the hot oven to start cooking. Cook until nicely roasted, 40 minutes 2 Dice all the vegetables into 1 to 1 ½ inch cubes. Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on a large cookie sheet pan. Drizzle them with olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Toss well and bake for 25 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender, turning one with a spatula. 3 In a large saucepan heat 6 cups of chicken stock. When the vegetables are done roasting, puree them in a food processor. Add the puree to the soup. Scrape any oil that is remaining in the cookie sheet and added to the soup. Rectify the seasoning with salt and pepper to your liking. 4 Serve in a large soup bowl. Cut the chicken in small bite pieces and place in the middle of the soup. Serve nice and hot.

About

It is a beautiful winter night.  Cold and raining. Perfect night for soup. 
I started searching in my cook books for a new recipe for vegetables soup. There are so many recipes that is was so hard to decide which direction to go. Couple that stuck the most were with roasted vegetables.   I had most of the vegetables in my refrigerator drawer. At the grocery store I went and a couple of minutes later I came out with this wonderful leg quarters that would have been perfect to cook with . At first I wanted to use the chicken for the broth, and then I decided not to, but, to have them roast alongside the vegetables and see what happens. The combination was quite well received and the whole, huge bowl ( thank you Mom for my early Christmas present) was eaten with no muss, no fuss. Very rich and filling.  Definitely left over for tomorrow, yummy.Simply, fast, easy is my motto during the week.
Enjoy.
Giangi