Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes: Hearty, Healthy, Tasty
This recipe looks impressive, but it's actually an easy weeknight meal.

For one of the healthiest takes on chicken, the oven is the way to go. Roasting chicken with fresh herbs creates great flavor without using a ton of oil or condiments. (These are the condiments nutritionists want you to avoid.) Fresh herbs are also a great way to cut back on salt in recipes. A low-salt diet can help keep blood pressure numbers down, which is essential to prevent conditions like heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. (Here are more tips for following a low-salt diet.)
In this roast chicken recipe, the chicken is flavored with rosemary, which goes great with potatoes. Instead of the average white potato, this recipe uses sweet potatoes. TBH, there is nothing inherently wrong with a white potato from time to time, but sweet potatoes are a great way to add diversity to your menus, and they are more nutritious than regular potatoes. In fact, one dietitian even lists them as a diabetic superfood.
For a variation, swap out the sweet potato and try diced butternut squash, turnips, or carrots. (Here’s how to peel carrots fast and cut squash safely.) Otherwise, go green and roast asparagus, green beans, or broccoli instead. These items take slightly less time to cook all the way through, so you can wait until the last 20 minutes to toss them in the oven.
Ingredients
- One 3-4 pound chicken
- 1 pound sweet potatoes (evenly chopped into 1 inch size pieces)
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon rosemary (chopped)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Set the chicken on the cutting board, breast side down. Using kitchen shears, cut along both sides of the backbone and remove it. Flip the chicken over and press down on the breast to flatten it out a little. (You may also ask your butcher to do this for you). Lay the chopped sweet potatoes in the pan and season with salt and pepper. Rub 1 teaspoon salt all over the chicken, including under the skin, and set it breast side up, in an 8 x 11 baking dish or roasting pan. Sprinkle it generously with black pepper. Then rub olive oil on top of the chicken. Sprinkle the skin with fresh thyme and rosemary Roast the chicken and stir the sweet potatoes after 30 minutes to ensure even cooking. Cook until an instant read thermometer inserted in the deepest part of the thigh registers at 170 to 175, about 50 minutes. Keep an eye on the pan juices, if they seem to be burning add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan. Let the chicken rest for a few minutes. Then cut into pieces, drizzle it generously with the pan juices and serve. Tip: To save time ask your butcher to butterfly the chicken Serves 5-6
Nutrition Information
Nutrition Information Based on a Single Serving
*Percent Daily Value are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Dietary Needs



Carbohydrate
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[SOUND] For
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this recipe I'm gonna show you how to make
a great take on a roast chicken.
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I'm Kolom, and thank you for watching
Eating by Heart.
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[MUSIC]
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If you're diabetic it's important to cook
recipes that are low sugar,
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high protein, without a lot of extra
calories; because you
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always wanna make sure that you're not
consuming too much fat.
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Today's recipe is roast sweet potatoes
with my perfect roast chicken.
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So first I'm going to chop my sweet
potatoes.
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Now sweet potatoes are very healthy.
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They're much healthier than regular old
white potatoes.
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They're higher in nutrients.
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So, whenever you can, I recommend swapping
white potatoes for sweet potatoes.
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They're also prettier, and I think they're
so much sweeter.
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You just wanna make sure that when you
chop them, you're chopping them into
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evenly sized pieces so that they cook
evenly in the oven.
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And this is gonna be, this is like,
instead of your oven rack, all you
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need is a sheet pan, your vegetables and
your chicken right over top.
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You don't need a rack or anything fancy
like that.
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So I'm gonna go ahead and put the sweet
potatoes on the baking sheet.
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I've got some extras that I cut here.
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So just one nice layer.
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That's all you need, then a little bit of
olive oil.
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Now olive oil has mono unsaturated fat, so
it's heart healthy fat,
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don't be afraid of it.
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Just use it sparingly.
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A little bit of sea salt.
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And then you just go ahead and mix it up.
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And then now this is the main, the main
tip here, so listen closely.
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You wanna butterfly your chicken, and that
allows your chicken to cook very evenly.
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See it's one kinda flat piece.
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And all you do is, you have your butcher
cut the back bone out of the chicken.
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And then it becomes one flat piece.
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And this way it evenly cooks.
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It gets really juicy and tender.
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And, it's one of those things that's so
forgiving, if you cook it five minutes ex,
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extra, it doesn't get overdone and dried
out.
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So, first, I'm gonna season my chicken
with sea salt.
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And I'm also gonna go underneath the skin
as well.
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You can even skip this under the skin part
of it, but it adds a little extra flavor.
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And then I'm going to go ahead and take a
little bit of olive oil and just get one,
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thin layer of olive oil over top and this
is going to help brown the chicken skin.
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Then, I'm gonna cover the chicken with
fresh herbs.
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So here I have rosemary and thyme.
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Again, you can use any variety of fresh
herbs that you like.
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And this is a really good base, this
recipe, but
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you could also put other vegetables
underneath.
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You could put onions.
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You could put shiitake mushrooms.
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But you just wanna get a nice layer of
fresh herbs on top to give it
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a little flavor.
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But do you see how easy that was?
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I mean this is kinda my go-to dish
whenever I need to feed a lot of
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people in a quick amount of time.
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I'm just gonna add a little bit of pepper.
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Now if you like lemon, you can always put
fresh lemon over top.
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And slice lemon slices and
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stick them right under the skin, that's
really tasty too.
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I'm gonna pop this in the oven for about
50 minutes.
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The great thing about butterflying your
chicken is, that it cooks a lot quicker.
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[SOUND] Now that you know how to butterfly
chicken,
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you can also do that same technique for
grilling, and it works wonderfully.
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All right.
Let me check on the chicken.
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[SOUND] Oh, it's looking beautiful.
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Here it is.
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[SOUND] Potatoes are nicely browned.
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So, if you're using a thermometer,
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you can check to make sure it's done in
the largest part of the thigh.
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It just wants to read about 170, 175.
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But this, to my eye looks nicely cooked.
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So I'm just gonna go ahead and
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take a little, oh it's falling right off
the bone.
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Just as I planned.
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[MUSIC]
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Perfection and it was so easy to make.
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I never over cook this chicken and
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it never dries out as long as it's
butterflied.
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I'm Kolom, thanks for watching Eating by
Heart for HealthiNation.
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Hope to see you again soon.
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[MUSIC]