Roasted Rosemary Lemon Chicken with Butternut Squash, Kale, and White Beans

Nothing says home cooked meal quite like a roasted chicken. I like to think that my roasted chicken makes my hubby as happy as it makes Ina Garten's husband on a Friday night. I heart Jeffrey! I typically prepare roasted chicken a few different ways, though it essentially depends on whether I feel like being a total health nut or a bedridden pig. For the latter, I liberally slather every inch, and I do mean every inch, of the chicken in Irish butter. I even embed heaping pads of butter underneath the skin. Basically, if the chicken still had its beak attached, I would kindly ask him to open wide as I foully (Pun intended. Get it? Fowl?) stuff a full stick of butter down his throat. My apologies to any vegetarians. This time, however, I chose the healthy route. I brined the chicken overnight, and then I arranged lemon slices and rosemary sprigs underneath the skin and inside the cavity along with cloves of garlic.

I roasted a butternut squash alongside of my newly brined friend. Then I simmered the squash with kale and white beans in some of the chicken jus and rosemary. Brining the chicken proved to be just as delicious as its boastfully buttered counterpart, and our waistbands truly thanked us for it.