Roasting a Chicken from the Freezer

My family really enjoys meals like this. Slow roasted, moist and yummy chicken with veggies is a crowd pleaser in our house any night. The only thing is it takes so much time and energy, it is usually reserved for days I have plenty of time. Well, I've been trying to figure out ways to use my free days to make more complicated meals work for busier days, and decided to try preparing the chicken and freeze it to see if it would work out. It turned out great!

You'll need

1 turkey size oven bag
kitchen twine
metal roasting pan

1 whole roasting chicken
1 bag whole golden or ruby gold potatoes (small enough you won't have to cut them, helps them freeze better)
1 bag baby cut carrots
1 medium onion, cut into large chunks
1 head garlic
1 lemon
1 bunch fresh thyme
about a stick of butter
1 Tbsp or so of olive oil
1/2-1 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Remove and discard organs. Rinse and dry chicken. Generously salt and pepper the cavity of the chicken. Set aside about 5 sprigs of thyme and insert the rest inside the chicken. Cut lemon in half and place one half inside chicken. Cut head of garlic in half horizontally (skin on and all, you want to open up the cloves but not cut it small enough to burn) and place one half inside chicken. Melt a couple tbsp of butter and brush the outside of the chicken. Salt and pepper the outside of the chicken to your taste. Tie the legs of the chicken with kitchen twine.

Put the onions, carrots and potatoes into the oven bag. Strip the thyme from the sprigs you set aside. Coat the veggies in olive oil. Sprinkle veggies with salt, pepper and thyme. Place the oven bag with the veggies into a roasting pan with the open end facing one of the short sides of the pan. Fold up ends of bag opening. Put the chicken in on top of the veggies. Tuck the wings under the breast. Depending on the size of your chicken and your roasting pan, put enough stock to barely cover veggies.

Tie up the oven bag and set everything in the freezer. Once it's frozen you can reclaim your roasting pan, but you'll need it to hold the shape. For something this big, I use my chest freezer.

When you're ready to cook. Pull out the chicken, put it in a roasting pan (or if you keep the roasting pan and chicken together in the freezer like I did, just stick it all in). Cook in your oven on 350 degrees for about 2-3 hours or until the juices run clear when you cut between the thigh and the breast, about 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. Depending on the brand of chicken you buy, a roaster might have one of those pop up gauges that will tell you when it's done. About half way through, I cut and pulled out the oven bag to brown the chicken better.