Weeknight Roasted Chicken with Gravy and Roasted Potatoes

One of my daughter's favorite meals is roasted chicken.  Chicken can take 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on the size making it hard to turn into a weeknight meal.  My butcher made an excellent suggestion to me, cut the chicken in half and remove the backbone.  Worked like a charm and this can roast in 45 minutes.  You could take it a step further and just get skin on-bone in chicken breasts but my husband likes the leg and thigh.

Ingredients for Chicken and Gravy:

1 whole chicken split in half, back bone removed

Kosher salt & pepper

2 cups of chicken broth

2 tbsp of cornstarch

For Roasted Potatoes:

10 baby potatoes or 4 small yukon golds (I used mixed baby yukon, red and purple)

2 cloves of garlic, whole skins removed

1 shallot, peeled and halved

5 cipollini onions, peeled and halved (optional)

Salt & pepper

High heat oil such as canola oil

Preheat the oven to 425.  Place chicken in the pan and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Halve or dice potatoes (depending on size) with the skin on and place in a large bowl.  Place peeled garlic cloves, shallots and onions (I only used these onions this time because I had them left over from another recipe but they were good in this) in the same bowl.  Drizzle oil over and season with salt and pepper.  Toss to coat.  Add potatoes mixture to the same roasting dish as the chicken.  Roast chicken and potatoes for 25 minutes.  Toss the potatoes and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until the chicken registers at 165 or higher.  Remove chicken and potatoes form the pan and allow to rest.  Drain off any excess fat and then add chicken stock mixed with cornstarch to the pan.  Return pan to oven and allow gravy to cook for 5 minutes until thickened when stirred.  Serve with favorite vegetable - suggested: green beans, asparagus, or corn.  

Variations: As this chicken is split there are two things I like to do that will add great flavor to the gravy and change the dish.  One variation is to add sliced lemons and parsley sprigs under the chicken while it is roasting.  The other is to place sliced sweet onion and quartered fresh figs underneath.  Both ideas complete change the gravy.