Everybody needs a few no-fail recipes in their cooking repertoire and in my opinion a roast chicken is definitely one of them. Crispy chicken skin, juicy meat flavoured with herbs, garlic and lemon, vegetables and potatoes roasted in the juices from the chicken, it doesn’t get much better than that! Oh, and leftover chicken for the next day of course! I served it with a kale & cranberry coleslaw, a great combo!
Recipe inspired by Jamie Oliver.
No-Fail Roast Chicken & Potatoes
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 1 organic & free range whole chicken, ± 1.6 kg
- 2 celery sticks, 3 - 4 cm pieces
- 2-3 medium onions, peeled & quartered
- 200 g carrots, left whole, if very big halve them lengthswise
- 1 garlic bulb, halved lengthwise (so you get 2 open halves)
- 1 lemon, halved
- Herbs: small bunch thyme, 1 rosemary sprig, 2 bay leaves
- Olive oil
- Pepper & Salt
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 240°C.
Spread the onions, celery, carrots and 1 of the garlic bulb halves into a large baking tray.
Drizzle with olive oil, pepper and salt, toss to coat.
Season the inside of the chicken generously with pepper and salt and stuff with the herbs and the lemon halves. Drizzle olive oil, pepper and salt over the chicken and massage it so everything is coated.
Place the chicken, breast side up on top of the vegetables and place in the oven. Turn the heat down to 200°C immediately. Roast for 1 hour and 20 minutes, basting the chicken half way through.
If roasting potatoes or additional vegetables add them the last 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven and transfer the chicken to a plate, cover with aluminium foil and a tea towel, let rest for 15 minutes.
Return the vegetables and potatoes to the turned off oven to keep warm. Another option would be to transfer the potatoes to a separate dish and keep warm. The rest of the vegetables (onions, carrots and celery) and the juices you can blend into a gravy, adding a little chicken stock if the mixture is too dry.
After 15 minutes of resting you’re ready to carve! Start by slicing off the legs and wings, they should come off easily. Then slice along the spine on top of the chicken, down the ribs to get the fillets. Use your hands to get the rest of the chicken meat off the bone. Serve with the potatoes on the side and the saucy vegetables spooned over the chicken.
