Cooking With Jewels: Mexican Roast Chicken

By Julie Anne Rhodes

Let's connect.

We have so much on our proverbial plates today, we often don’t have time to put real food on them. You know you should be eating more meals cooked at home to avoid preservatives and pesticides in your food, and control the amount of sugar, fat, and salt you’re consuming – but who has the time to cook?

Cooking with Jewels: Mexican-style Roast Chicken

Take a deep breath, and join the Personal Chef Approach. Cook once a week to enjoy homemade meals in minutes all week long. Not only will you eat healthier, you’ll save money, and up to 6-7 hours per week vs. cooking daily. Here’s a sample of what you’ll be enjoying when you join…

With membership you will have access to over 350 recipes, your own custom menu planning tool, automatic grocery lists and heat to eat instructions, an easy to use recipe scaler, recipes that convert from standard to metric for our international members, plus the tips and support you need to store and heat those meals to retain their freshness.

PS. Be sure to subscribe to the Personal Chef Approach YouTube channel, so you don’t miss any of the other recipes and cooking term demonstrations I’ll be releasing soon!

Mexican-Style Roast Chicken

Mexican-Style Roast Chicken

Roast chicken is not only the ultimate comfort food in my book, it’s also a one pan meal (gotta love that) when you throw potatoes and vegetables in to roast along side of the chicken. This version kicks the classic recipe up a notch in both flavor and color to add a little variety to your repertoire.

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

Mexican-Style Roast Chicken

nonstick spray

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic minced

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

3 1/2 pound whole chicken (I prefer a fryer to roasting chicken)

1 medium onion quartered

1 fresh cilantro divided, optional

1 pound red potatoes scrubbed and quartered

6 large carrots peeled and cut into 1

4 large zucchini removed ends and quarter

Directions

Mexican-Style Roast Chicken

Preheat oven to 375° F. Spray the rack of a roasting pan with nonstick spray; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the dry spices and brown sugar, then mix well with minced garlic and red wine vinegar to make a spice paste. Rub half of the mixture generously all over the chicken (top and bottom), and place on the rack in the roasting pan. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the onion quarters and half of the cilantro, reserving the remaining cilantro for garnish on the platter.
Now stir in the olive oil to the remaining spice mixture, add the vegetables to the bowl and toss well to coat. Pour the vegetables into the roasting pan around the chicken. Roast until the chicken is cooked, juices run clear and the chicken reaches 165° F when placing a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh without touching the bone, about 75-90 minutes. Lower oven to 200° F, remove chicken from oven and let rest 10 minutes before carving, and place the vegetables back into the oven to keep warm until ready to serve. Remove and discard the onion.
Serving Suggestions

Carve and arrange on platter to serve with the roasted vegetables, and cilantro for garnish.
Heat To Eat

Vent lid of container and heat in microwave on 50% power for 3-5 minutes, turning pieces midway to distribute heat evenly; or wrap in foil and place on roasting pan to heat in a preheated 375° F oven until just heated through, about 12-15 minutes.
Variations

I am not a huge fan of onion, so I usually use lemon to stuff the cavity (to keep the breast meat from drying out) instead.
Notes

For a lower fat version - gently loosen the skin from the breast and leg portions of the chicken; rub the paste evenly under the skin, and roast. Once the chicken is cooked, remove the skin before serving. It won't look as pretty, but you will have chicken that is moist and permeated with delicious flavor.