I love one-pan meals, and this Apple & Butternut Squash Roasted Chicken is one of the easiest AND most comforting meals to make when the weather gets cooler. This dish takes very little effort to prepare with simple ingredients including local beautiful apples.
We are dipping below the freezing mark this weekend… time to cozy up inside! This easy to throw together one-pan dinner is a favourite in our household! The warm flavours of butternut squash come together with the sweetness of the apples and the thyme just adds the perfect touch. We are at the tail end of apple season and I’m looking for the perfect recipes to use the last of the apples from our tree. If you have an abundance of apples I’ve rounded up my best-ever apple recipes here [1]!
Best Apples for Roasting
I chose Gala apples for this recipe because they keep their shape when roasted, but you could also use Granny Smith or Golden Delicious. Apples are a perfect compliment to the earthy sweet squash, and when all roasted together in the same pan, give you a side dish and a main dish all in one (you’ll still want to have another side dish or two if your crowd is as hungry as mine usually is). Which means less time fussing in the kitchen and more time visiting with your guests!
Buying Local
We’ve always eaten a plant-forward diet, and make sure that our meat, fish and poultry is ethically sourced from a local supplier that we know and trust. I’d encourage you to do the same! We get most of our meat delivered by TruLocal [2] and have been loving knowing we are getting the highest quality of meat, seafood and poultry we can, like the chicken that we used for this dish. If you use the code FRAICHELIVING at check out you will also get 4 free wild caught salmon filets (in a regular box or 2 for a small box).
Apple & Butternut Squash Roasted Chicken
Full of fall flavours, this roast chicken is a simple Sunday dinner!
Ingredients
- 1 whole organic chicken (approximately 1.4 kg or 3 lb)
- 4 cups butternut squash, diced into 1" pieces (1 medium squash, seeded and peeled)
- 1 large yellow onion (peeled and cut into 8 quartered pieces)
- 2 BC Tree Fruit Gala apples (quartered and cored)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 10 sprigs fresh thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 400F.
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Place the squash, onion and apple slices evenly on a large baking sheet. Place the chicken on top of the squash mixture in the centre of the pan. Pour 1 Tbsp. of the oil on the chicken and the remaining 2 Tbsp. on the vegetables. Place a 1/4 of the onion inside the cavity of the chicken along with 3 thyme sprigs and truss the chicken with twine.
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Scatter the remaining thyme over the vegetables and season everything with salt and pepper.
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Roast for approximately an hour or until done, setting the oven to broil for the last 5-10 minutes to brown the chicken.
If this Apple & Butternut Squash Roasted Chicken was a hit in your family let us know in the comments below!