Roast Chicken With Lemon & Rosemary Roast Potatoes

November's here! Where did all the time go?

It's the month of Thanksgiving, and I thought, instead of sharing a turkey recipe, I am going to share a roast chicken recipe. I think a chicken is the perfect bird for a small family, like my husband and me! I love this recipe because it is relatively straightforward, and the end result is one tasty, juicy chicken. I had at least 1/2 inch of juices in my tray, perfect to slurp it up with the potatoes! The lemon helps to tendorize the chicken, but the good thing is it doesn't leave a strong lemony after taste. For those who doesn't like lemony chicken, like my hubby, that should be good news for you.

Just a note, I didn't have fresh thyme with me, so I substituted it for oregano. I also added butternut squash to the recipe because I love its slight nutty flavour, and it pairs well with the juices. J follow the same steps with the squash as with the potatoes. Finally, there is a part of the recipe that asks you to toss your potatoes in a pan after boiling them. I tried skipping that step, as well as sauteing the potatoes with a little olive oil after boiling, and the difference is pretty great. The potatoes were definitey tastier and a little more crisp when sauted before popping them into the oven.

So, are you ready? Then pick up your spring chicken and let's start cooking!

Roast Chicken With Lemon And Rosemary Roast Potatoes (from Jamie's Dinners)

Ingredients
4 1/2 pounds free-range organic chicken
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled (note: I used one large potato, and 1/2 small butternut squash)
1 large, preferably unwaxed, lemon
1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
a handful of fresh thyme (note: I used oregano)
olive oil
a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
optional: 8 slices bacon

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.Preheat your oven to 375ºF. 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 outsidesget chuffed up and fluffy – this will make them lovely and crispy when they roast.

While the lemon is still hot, carefully stab it about 10 times. Take the chicken out of the fridge, pat it with paper towels 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 pan and cook in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate. Some lovely fat should have cooked outof 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 center of the potatoes and put the chicken back in. If using the bacon, lay the slices over the chicken breast and cook for a further 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are nice and golden. (You can tell the chicken is cooked when thethigh meat pulls easily away from the bone and the juices run clear.)

I like to remove the bacon from the chicken and crumble it up over the potatoes. Then I 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, discard the lemon and rosemary and carve the chicken at the table. Heaven! Tweet