Next Post
Crockpot Carne Asada Beer Chili.
This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.
Happy Fall!!! {enter all the fall emoji’s you can think of!}
I’m sure you guys have noticed, but I’ve been waiting for the official start of fall and finally, it has arrived, I am pumped!
It’s my favorite time of year. So much to look forward to over the next three-ish months. So much to do, so much excitement and of course, so much awesome food! The food is my favorite thing about fall, it’s THE BEST.
Clearly, I NEEDED to start off autumn with a roasted chicken. It’s just the quintessential fall thing to do. When I was a kid roasted chicken was my mom’s thing. It was one of the handful of dinners she would make, and she’d only make it on a Sunday night. She’d do all the prep for the chicken, roast it, check it, baste it, add more butter… Dad would make the rice, and possibly some kind of green, but I must admit, the greens were kind of scarce.
SIDE NOTE: Dad used to ALWAYS eat salad every night for dinner, no matter what he was making us kids. He’d literally mow giant bowls of salad for dinner…the rest of just weren’t into that. Since I started cooking (and making food other than chicken and rice) dad has changed his ways, but he still loves a good salad.
Mom would always attempt to make bread in her bread machine…but most of the time she’d start the bread at like five or six and with a four-hour cooking time, the bread was normally served after dinner, but before dessert. Either that or she’d throw loaf of bread in the oven from the store, BUT, there was an 85% chance she’d burn the bread. I am not trying to be harsh on her, but she is notorious for burning bread and or starting it way too late, and she’ll fully admit to it too. It’s just mom and we all love her for it.
Anyway, I think my point in all this was, that to me, a roasted chicken symbolizes fall and family dinners. It’s such a loved meal for me solely for that reason. Well that and I swear, no one makes a roasted chicken better than my mom. Her secret? Salt, pepper, chicken broth, Vegata seasoning and umm, butter.
Butter is a must, you knew that one was coming. She made it simple, but GOOD.
I kind of fancified her chicken a bit though and stuffed a whole bunch of goat cheese and fresh herbs under that chicken skin. Oh my gosh, I know. WHAT!
Yes, I somehow found a way to add cheese to a classic like roasted chicken. I think I have issues.
WHATEVER. Everyone’s got issues. I can deal with it. Cheese rules, especially goat cheese. So it’s totally cool.
I still kept the actual process of roasting the chicken simple and easy. I know the title sounds kind of fancy, but it’s really not, it’s a simple, easy meal to make for your family… or maybe even just for one. Then you can just eat the leftovers all week long. YUM!
Ok, so what else!
You’ve got the goat cheese stuffed under that skin. You also have some caramelized walnuts, sage and just a little rosemary in there too. From there you just rub the chicken with a little olive oil, salt + pepper. Oh, and butter…of course.
Then throw some grapes in a roasting pan and place the chicken on top of the grapes and roast away! Don’t be weirded out by the roasted grapes. They’re kind of my new favorite thing!! I love, love, love using grapes in a savory way like this and the flavors pair so perfectly with the flavors from the chicken + goat cheese. It’s kind of magical. <–Truth.
OH! And one of the most important parts is the apple cider. You know how some people baste their chicken with chicken broth? Or maybe you don’t baste your chicken, I don’t know, but today we are basting our chicken in a reduced apple cider sauce. It’s sweet and makes for the most perfect, golden caramelized skin. If you’re a lover of the skin (which oddly not a single soul in my family is), than you will LOVE this little step.
Plus, it really helps to keep the chicken moist and tie in all those awesome fall flavors!
*Lastly, for those of you who saw this post earlier today. I want to you to know that your efforts to contact Pinterest on my behalf of my issue have worked! Pinterest finally contacted me to let me know that we have been removed from their blacklist. They apologized for the inconvenience and said that, “Occasionally good websites get caught in the mix when we’re looking for spammy sites. This shouldn’t happen again, however, please let us know if it does”. Thank you all for being such AWESOME loyal readers. You have no idea how much this means to me. 🙂 Tieghan
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Come on, doesn’t this fall harvest cider roasted chicken just make you feel all warm and cozy?!?! YES!
So, I made this dish last night and it turned out perfectly! It even elicited a curse word from a typically non-cursing guest while taking the first bite. Major hit! I had just been apple picking on Saturday so I threw several sliced and peeled apples into the bottom of the roasting pan (in addition to stuffing the chicken) with the grapes and cloves of garlic. Next time I will add more of the cheese/walnut mixture to the bottom as well because the flavor of the apples, grapes, garlic and cheese mixture was phenomenal! Thanks for a great keeper of a recipe!
Just made this and it was unbelievable! Everyone loved it. I also used your brine recipe and would definitely recommend it. The chicken was so good, this is a keeper. Thanks again! I can’t wait to try it with turkey and maybe mix in some cranberries with the grapes and apples. 🙂
SO happy you love this! Makes me so happy! THANK YOU!
Cider roasted chicken sounds like an incredible feast entree–and with walnut goat cheese and grapes?! I mean, might as well set up a candlelight picnic dinner!
Very likely making this this weekend. It looks and sounds AMAZING! MY question is…. for the garlic…. you simply said- 1 head of garlic, bottom sliced off to reveal the cloves… and of course sounding so simple my brain assumes I’m missing something. Do I leave all that peel’y skin on? Just chop off the bottom and stick it in the bird? Or do I need to peel all that stuff off the garlic first?
This looks so amazing!!!
Thanks
Christy
HI!!
Yes, leave the skin on and stick it in the bird! The garlic is just adding flavor, you will not eat, so you can leave the skin on! Hope you LOVE this. THANKS!!
Happy fall! 🙂 This is beyond gorgeous, roast chicken has never looked better!
What an awesome dinner to start off fall with!! Looks delish!
Tieghan!! This looks SO GOOD. How do you think a crock pot conversion of this recipe would turn out? Was thinking of using cornish hens.
Hmm, I honestly do not know. I have never cooked a whole chicken in a crockpot, nor have I cooked cornish hens. SOoo, I really cannot say. Let me know if you do try it though and how it turns out! Thanks!
Spot on recipe and mouth-watering photography, Tieghan. Thank you. I want to add that your home is awesome, so thank you for sharing that as well. Cheers, Ardith
Sounds and looks amazing. Would love to try but only have cows milk feta. Would this work instead of goats cheese?
Hi! I think that should work fine. Hope you love this!!
Complained to Pinterest, and after some back and forth, they said they’ve removed your site from the “blacklist” – and indeed, I was able to pin once more from here! Can’t wait to give this one a try!
OMG! Thank you so much for your efforts, I am SO grateful! Hope you had a great day!
Fixed. Tried to forward you their response to me, but can’t find an email address. PINNED!
Hi Jennifer! THANK YOU!!
Honestly, thank you so much for your efforts, I am SO grateful! Hope you had a great day!
I was just able to pin this recipe! Maybe they fixed it already? 🙂
I just contacted Pinterest.
Sent complaint to Pinterest!
I was so upset when I was trying to pin recipes yesterday! I googled a bit and it may be because so many people pin your stuff, it creates a lot of traffic. But that’s the whole point of Pinterest! I love your recipes and make them all the time, my husband even follows you on Instagram and tags me in the comments when he wants to try certain things 🙂 I contacted Pinterest again for you! Hopefully it gets straightened out!