easy roast chicken

I've been buying whole roasting chickens lately and cutting them up for our everyday meals like this one above. Although it's so tempting to just buy rotisserie chickens from the grocery deli, there are times when I'd like to infuse it with more aromatics and different flavors.

I couldn't wait to try and use the souvenirs from our trip. I saw the items (above) for sale at the Cours Saleya outdoor market in Nice. I wanted to buy them right there but bringing the herbs in the US could have been a problem. I couldn't forget about the cute and unique olive serving plate as well. Acquiring these items only proves once again that there's nothing you can't find and get over the internet these days. Researching online, I was excited to find a website, Cathe Boutique, somewhere in Provence, selling the same items for about the same price. The olive server has a couple of small containers attached to the plate. They're intended for the olive pits and for holding the toothpicks. The herbes de provence mills are filled with the popular aromatic dried French herbs. The herbs are just perfect especially for chicken dishes like the easy roast chicken I made above. I cut up a medium size whole chicken, rinsed and drained the pieces well. Then I transferred them to a baking dish and squeezed the juice of one lemon on them. Sprinkle with salt and a generous amount of the herbes de provence. Cut up a medium onion into chunks along with a few hot sausages and tuck them in between the chicken pieces. Sprinkle some olive oil on top. Bake or roast the chicken for about one and a half hours. Turn the broiler on to brown the chicken skins and the sausages during the last few minutes of cooking. Serve hot with a vegetable side dish or green salad.

a cute server for olives and cheese