Roast Chicken with Roast Veg Salad
GF - DFO - Family Friendly Meal
This is a simple family meal that's really quick to prep. I love this recipe for using up old veggies in the fridge. It's suitable for the whole family and is a great baby-led weaning (BLW) meal idea.
To make it BLW friendly, just serve finger shaped pieces of chicken and roasted vegetables so baby is able to pick them up. Ensure everything is soft enough to squish between your fingers, so that baby is able to mash the food up with their gums.
BLW is so great for developing hand-eye coordination and also allows them to determine how much they want to eat. I usually do a mix of BLW along with spoon feeding in a meal, so that they can explore different textures and flavours, and so I feel confident knowing they are actually eating something via spoon feeding. I find they tend to eat a full meal when they are able to “play” with their food along with being spoon fed.
Ingredients
1 Organic Whole Chicken
2 tbsp butter at room temp (use olive oil for DFO)
2 cloves minced garlic
Herbs, dried or fresh
Olive Oil
S&P
Veggies of choice ~ I used pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini
Spinach leaves or mixed lettuce leaf
Feta cheese (or Goat’s Cheese or Tahini Dressing for DFO)
Chopped nuts and seeds ~ I used hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds
Preheat your oven to 180oC fan forced.
Method
Combine butter, garlic and herbs in a bowl. Separate the skin from the breast of the chicken and massage a tbsp of the garlicky butter mix in each side. Coat the whole chicken in the rest of the butter mix, then drizzle with olive oil, S&P. Place in an oven tray and into the oven for 60-90mins depending on size of your chicken.
Dice the vegetables into thumb sized chunks and place into a separate oven tray. Coat with a drizzle of olive oil, S&P and place into oven on bottom rack (underneath the chicken) to cook for 45-60mins or until soft and sweet.
Chop the salad leaves and combine in a bowl with the roast veg. Top with feta, nuts and seeds and mix well. Serve 2 cups worth of salad (adult serving) along with a palm sized amount of the carved roast chicken.
