Roasted Chicken, Roasted Veggetables, and Quinoa Pilaf

Last night, I cooked some of the best roasted chicken I've ever had.  Check it out...

Ingredients:

• Roasted Chicken
• one whole 5lb chicken
• garlic olive oil (garlic soaked in olive oil for a few days)
• rosemary
• rub
• kosher salt
• cane sugar
• red pepper
• white pepper
• black pepper
• garlic salt
• celery salt
• paprika
• cloves
• mustard powder
• oregano
• basil
• Roasted Vegetables
• potatoes
• carrots
• onion
• celery
• rub
• rosemary
• olive oil
• Cotes du Rhone Terre des Lauzeraies - a French red wine blend
• Woodchuck hard cider 
•  Quinoa Pilaf
• red quinoa
• frozen vegetables
• garlic
• sea salt
• oregano
• basil
• celery salt
• honey

Procedure:

Chicken and Potatoes

    To start with, I put a chicken roasting rack in a roasting pan.  This will hold the bird above the vegetables, keeping it all in the air and letting the drippings hit the rest of the food.  I then filled the bottom of the pan with the chopped up vegetables and seasoning.  Once that layer was ready, I smeared the chicken with garlic olive oil, rubbed on the rub, and set it on the rack.  Onions, rosemary, and half an orange got stuffed into the chicken's cavity and rosemary and garlic were placed on top.  All of this went into the oven at 325 for about 2-2.5 hours, until all of the meat reached at least 165F.

Quinoa Pilaf

    The pilaf is the same as I make all the time, and have posted before - just boil the quinoa as you normally would (same as rice), with a little extra water, frozen vegetables, and some seasonings.

Resulting Deliciousness

    This was some of the best roasted chicken I've ever made.  It was a little dry in a few places like the top of the breasts, but I'm spoiled since I'm constantly brining everything I make.  I wish I could have brined this, but I didn't buy the chicken in advance, so that wasn't really an option.  However, the rub and all the rosemary and garlic made this chicken absolutely delicious.  The skin was nice and crisp, and not dried out.  The vegetables were a little fatty from all the drippings and olive oil - next time I'll look for a bird that's a little less fatty and try not to go overboard with the oil.  The quinoa pilaf was excellent, as always.  I also really liked the red wine that I picked out.  It was on sale for $8 and the Whole Foods wine guy was right that it would go well with poultry.