Roast Chicken with Oranges & Rosemary

Our usual preparation for our Sunday night roast chicken is to olive oil it, sprinkle on some herbes de Provence, squeeze a lemon over it and pop the squeezed rind inside the cavity before roasting at about 375 degrees for about an hour. Sometimes we roast small potatoes and/or large shallots alongside. Simple. Satisfying. Feeds us for two nights, at least.

As we say in my family, "Acceptable plus!"

But, this week, we have all these lovely navel oranges, tree-ripened and gifted to us - seemed like there must be a way to use them with chicken, too. So, we did roughly the same thing, only swapping an orange for the lemon and rosemary for the herbes de Provence and it was simply lovely. The sweeter taste of the orange inside came through clearly and the juice carmelized beautifully in the roasting pan with the chicken juices so we just spooned some of it up and drizzled it over the chicken.

The combination of orange and rosemary is truly perfect - each compliments the other without losing the flavors of either. And together they make a great accompaniment for good old Sunday roast chicken.