Amazing Roast Chicken
2013-11-29
- Yield : 1 Roast
- Servings : 4-6
- Prep Time : 20m
- Cook Time : 2:00 h
- Ready In : 2:20 h
Packed with flavour (literally) this bird is cooked on a trivet, which is basically a bed or veggies to lift it of the bottom of the roasting tin. This helps the heat get around but more importantly it gives you a base of a stock for your “Awesome Gravy” too!
As for what bird to buy, I can honestly say I’ve tried “budget” ones from Morrissons and “taste tested” them against an M&S “hand reared free range corn fed super tasty” ones and the only difference I could find was the price…So my suggestion is to go for the ones you can afford as long as its a “Free Range” variety.
Ingredients
- Chicken of your choice – Preferably free range
- Butter
- Herbs: Rosemary, Sage, Lemon Thyme
- Garlic (crushed with the blade of your knife – no need to de-skin)
- Salt / Pepper
- Veg for trivet: Onion, Carrot, Swede, Celery, Parsnip…
Method
Step 1
Roughly chop your chosen vegetables, season with salt & pepper, add some of the selection of herbs and toss in a little olive oil. Then put in your roasting tin, saving some of the herbs for the bird…
Step 2
Finely chop some of the sage & thyme and add it to your butter with a grinding of black pepper and then mix together to make a herby butter.
Step 3
Next, carefully pull up the chicken skin from the breast area – Just enough so you can get your hand in to layer/line the breast with the herby butter (see picture). Make sure you have a nice even layer all over the breasts and then flatten the skin back down.
Step 4
Next pop a quartered onion, some sage & rosemary sprigs and the crushed garlic in to the cavity of the bird.
Step 5
Finally season the bird well with salt and pepper and place in to a pre-heated oven of 200° for 25 minutes per pound plus an extra 20 minutes
Step 6
Whilst the chicken is cooking, take it out and baste at least three times
Step 7
Once cooked remove from tin and make a gravy from the juices in the tin.
Average Member Rating
(4.8 / 5)
6 people rated this recipe
posted by Paul on December 24, 2013
What a great method