Source: Jamie's Dinner by Jamie Oliver (contains an affilate link)
A roast chicken dinner is one of our all-time family favourites. Our go to recipe for roast chicken is this one from Jamie Oliver - the meat tastes amazing!
Don't forget - the leftovers can be used for a variety of different dishes. Claire tends to reserve some of the leftovers for singapore noodles (another Jamie Oliver recipe) and uses the carcass to make a delicious chicken soup!
“A roast chicken dinner is one of our all-time family favourites.”
Ingredients:
1 x 2kg free-range chicken
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2kg potatoes, peeled
1 large lemon, preferably unwaxed
1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
a handful of fresh thyme
olive oil
a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
8 x rashers of smoked streaky bacon
Serving: 4
Method:
1. Rub the chicken inside and out with a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Do this in the morning if possible, then cover the chicken and leave in the fridge until you're ready to start cooking it for lunch or dinner. By doing this, you'll make the meat really tasty when cooked.
2. Preheat your oven to 190°C/375°C/gas mark 5.
3. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cut the potatoes into golf-ball-sized pieces, put them into the water with the whole lemon and the garlic cloves, and cook for 12 minutes. Drain and allow to steam dry for 1 minute (this will give you crispier potatoes), then remove the lemon and garlic. Toss the potatoes in the pan while still hot so their outsides get chuffed up and fluffy - this will make them lovely and crispy when they roast
4. While the lemon is still hot, carefully stab it about 10 times. Take the chicken out of the fridge, pat it with kitchen paper and rub it all over with olive oil. Push the garlic cloves, the whole lemon and the thyme into the cavity, then put the chicken into a roasting tray and cook in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken to a plate. Some lovely fat should have cooked out of it into the roasting tray, so toss the potatoes into this with the rosemary leaves. shake the tray around, then make a gap in the centre of the potatoes and put the chicken back in. Lay the rashers of bacon over the chicken breast and cook for a further 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are nice and golden.
6. Remove the bacon from the chicken and crumble it over the potatoes. Then remove the lemon and garlic from inside the chicken, squeeze all the garlic flesh out of the skin, mush it up and smear it all over the chicken and discard the lemon and rosemary.
Carve the chicken and serve. Heaven!
Top tip: great accompanied with savoy cabbage, simply braised with some butter and water.
Source: Jamie's Dinner by Jamie Oliver (contains an affilate link)
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