I love a roast chicken. It is one of those things you can flavour in so many ways and always do something fun and interesting. I also love the fact that I can just put everything in a roasting tray, bang it in the oven and not think about it until it's ready. And you don't even really need to make a gravy and can just take it out of the oven and serve it as it is. You can make your life as easy or hard as you want. This is quite easy, just a bit of chopping of vegetables and herbs and that's basically it.
1 whole chicken
1 lemon
70 gr soft butter
good handful fresh herbs. Use what ever you have got, I used Rosemary, Parsley and Mint but you just use what you like and have. It can also be something like Thyme, Sage or Basil
1 whole garlic
salt and pepper
olive oil or rapeseed oil
Root vegetables of your choice, I used potatoes and sweet potatoes
1 glass white wine
2 teaspoons Cornflour or plain flour to thicken the gravy
Preheat oven to 180° fan. Put the butter in a bowl and into that goes the zest and juice from 1 lemon and finely chopped herbs. Break up the garlic and crush or grate three cloves into the butter. Give this a good mix and rub over all over the chicken and also put some of it under the skin on the breasts. Put the squeezed out lemon pieces into the chicken for extra flavour.
Cut the vegetables up in chunks, the size is up to you, and put into a big roasting tray along with the rest of the garlic cloves. Drizzle a little oil, 1-2 tablespoons is enough just so the vegetables don't stick to the tray because the butter will help once it starts to melt. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Put the chicken on top of the vegetables and season well with salt and pepper. This goes into the oven until nice and golden on top and the juice coming out of it is completely clear. For a medium sized chicken you need around and hour and 15 minutes but the time varies depending on the size of the chicken. Just make sure it is cooked all the way through but still nice and juicy.
When I take out the chicken I take the crispy skin of the breasts, flip it over and let it rest breast side down. That way you get nice and juicy breasts and because you removed the skin before flipping it over you still get the crispy skin.
Remove the vegetables from the tray, put it on the heat and pour in a good glass of white wine. Let this reduce a bit and try and scrape up all the bits that are sticking to the bottom of the tray because that is where the flavour is. Season to taste and when you are happy with it, mix together cornflour/plain flour with a little bit of cold water and stir into the sauce to thicken it. If there isn't enough sauce you can always add a little bit of chicken stock or cream for extra richness.
This is such an easy roast to make and everyone loves it.