Roast Chicken with Artichoke and Citrus Salad

What could possibly make a juicy roast chicken with perfectly bronzed, crisp skin even better? Try pairing it with a tangy, salty, sweet and peppery salad for an elegant but easy dinner! 

This post is sponsored by Cento. All opinions and recipes however are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting brands that I love and that support Jo Eats!

Hello world! I have unearthed myself from the hole that is moving to a new city while parenting a toddler and working full time and have decided to blog again, hurrah! And for our first meal back together I think it should be something special, yes? 

We’ve been eating a lot of roast chicken these last few months – also for years before that…but right now it feels particularly important to my way of life. I think a roast chicken is the ultimate comfort food. It makes the house smell like heaven, it’s elegant but also homey, and the crispy skin situation is basically what dreams are made of. But from a more practical standpoint – roast chicken is easy, pleases pretty much everybody, and you can usually get more than one meal out of the thing. 

So what do you do when you’ve eaten like, a LOT of roast chicken and you need a change? Well that’s what I was thinking about this time last month and now I have a pretty solid answer for you. You make this salad:

Yeah, it looks pretty stellar, right? And it’s the perfect foil for a juicy, fatty, crisp-skinned chicken, too! Peppery arugula is topped with beautifully marinated artichoke hearts, sweet oranges, briny olives and capers, and salty feta. Then the whole thing is drizzled with a tangy citrus vinaigrette which inevitably mixes with the juices from the roast chicken and becomes just this unearthly tangle of deliciousness that cannot be adequately described through the written word. 

So let’s quit talking about it and make it, shall we?

The Chicken

Start with a 4-5 pound chicken, remove any stuff from inside the cavity and pat dry with paper towels. Then pop it on a wire cooling rack, set inside a rimmed baking sheet. This is my preferred vessel for roasting a chicken, as the sides come up just enough to catch any drippings, but not so high as to shield the sides of the chicken from the heat, which leads to flabby, not beautifully crisped skin.

Then liberally salt the inside and outside of the chicken with kosher salt. You’ll notice we’re not pre-seasoning or brining this chicken, because with an exceedingly mobile toddler I just don’t have time for that. So getting enough salt on the bird is a big deal – don’t skimp. I finish it off with 10-12 grinds of black pepper and a generous drizzle of Cento’s Certified Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and then chuck it in a 400 degree oven. 

I’ll check on it around 30 minutes to see how it’s browning. Ovens are usually hotter at the back, so this is typically a good time to rotate the pan to make sure you’re getting even color all over the bird. Then lower the heat to 325 and let it coast to a juicy 155 degrees at the thickest part of the breast. This usually takes about 30-40 more minutes, but it all depends on how big that bird really is.

Once you’ve hit your target temp, take your chicken out to rest, uncovered for about 20 minutes. This is the perfect amount of time to assemble your salad, pour some wine and take a moment to scroll through TikTok, catch up with your partner, or just stare deep into the void – you do you!

The Salad

In my opinion, and pretty much all of this is my opinion if we’re being honest, salads shouldn’t be complicated, time consuming affairs. They should have one or two stars, a supporting player, something crunchy, something salty, and a simple yet delicious dressing. Here’s how this one goes down:

I’ve used Cento canned tomatoes and olive oil for over a decade in so many recipes from tomato soup to stuffed burgers to cheesy, cheesy Detroit style pizza. But recently I’ve been veering off the beaten path and dipping into some of their other delights. Two of my favorites are featured in this salad and to be honest, they’re just as good for snacking while you’re waiting for your chicken to roast as they are in the finished shebang!

First we’ve got Cento Marinated Artichoke Hearts. These come packed in a delicious blend of olive oil, vinegar, herbs and spices and are an easy way to get flavor on the table without a whole lot of trouble. Also, they’re really good on pizza.

Then as a backup singer to our savory artichokes and sweet tangy citrus, we’ve got some of my favorite olives of all time – Castelveltrano. Don’t let the name intimidate you (it’s actually pretty phonetic). These olives are firm, juicy, and just briny enough to add a punch, without taking over. In the world of olives I think of them as “highly refined” (and yes, I just made that up). But see for yourself. I’m pretty sure olive lovers are already in love with the Castelveltrano, and olive haters may actually come around to the other side for this light green beauty. 

So what’s next? Well you don’t need much else to make this salad sing. Toss your artichoke hearts with some crushed Castelveltranos and sliced or segmented oranges (any variety that’s juicy and sweet is great). Throw in a handful of briny capers, some roasted pistachios and a generous crumble of feta, and pile it all on top of a bed of peppery arugula. 

Then drizzle your citrusy dressing over the salad and top with that still warm, juicy as all get out, perfectly cooked chicken. Find fork, devour immediately, but make it classy, please – or not.

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