1. Preheat the oven to 425F.

At the same time, place a large (I use a 12 inch) cast iron skillet inside the oven to preheat. Don’t oil it until after it’s heated up.

2. Prepare the lemon dressing.

3. Prepare celery root or potatoes.

Wash the celery root (or potatoes), and cut away any gnarly bits of skin / root. I usually do not peel all of the skin off, but you can if you’d prefer (I use a paring knife for this, not a vegetable peeler).

Slice the celery root into rounds about 1/8 of an inch thick. (1/4 inch thick if you’re doing potatoes.) As noted above, you want about 5 cups of sliced celery root.

4. Prepare to bake.

Take the pre-heated cast iron skillet out of the oven. Spray it down with a little olive oil.

Dump the celery root (or potatoes) into the pan, and pour about 2/3  of the dressing over the top of it. Toss the celery root in the pan to coat the celery root in the dressing. Then arrange the celery root in a circle around the outside of the pan, working your way in toward the middle. It doesn’t need to be too neat. Pour 2 cups of chicken broth into the celery root (save the last 1/2 cup for later). You want the broth in the bottom of the pan to help cook the celery root, but you don’t want to wash the dressing off of the celery root when you pour it in, so pour it in carefully.

Place the chicken in the center of the skillet. You want some of the celery root under the chicken, but you also want a good amount exposed to the oven – these are the pieces that will get a bit crisp. Place the lemon half you set aside earlier (that you squeezed out but didn’t zest) inside the chicken cavity.

Pour the remaining marinade over the chicken. If you have a spray olive oil, spray everything down one last time with some olive oil to make sure the tops are protected. Generously sprinkle some salt over the top of the chicken (there is salt in the dressing, but much of it will slide off and go down to the celery root).

5. Bake for 60-75 minutes.

Put the chicken in the oven to bake. If you have convection bake, I recommend using it.

The chicken is done when the deep part of the breast (make sure you don’t push in too deep and temp the cavity by mistake, easy to do with small chickens!) reads 155F. Then take it out of the oven to let it rest for 10 minutes in the skillet.

6. While the chicken rests, prep the steamed spinach.

Take a large frying pan (I like to use a nonstick), and pour in 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Heat over medium heat until the water starts to bubble. Add a handful or two of spinach, letting it rest in the pan for about a minute before you stir to let it wilt. Fold over the wilted spinach and add another handful or two of spinach. Continue until all spinach is wilted. Then add the arugula. Turn off the stove just before wilted and continue to fold over the leaves until wilted. 

7. Final assembly.

Remove the chicken from the skillet to a wooden cutting board or serving platter.

Place the spinach into the empty center left by the chicken. (Note: I usually first pour off any broth remaining in the frying pan from wilting the spinach or use tongs to remove the spinach from the frying pan while leaving behind extra broth).

Gently fold the spinach mixture in with the dressing pooled in the center of the skillet.

8. Enjoy!