Chicken Roast

This country loves their Roast, but how many people avoid it with thoughts of 'too expensive', 'takes up too much time' and even 'what a bland meal'. Well this really does not have to be the case! I have found a way that works really well for me, it doesn't take control of my Sunday, its super cheap and even have leftovers for Monday lunches. Infact if you follow our tiktok you will see how we made the famous moist maker sandwich from friends from our left over roast. It was so good I had it for lunch, dinner and dreamt about it the next day.

So for me the key aspects for the roast is of course the whole chicken, we found the best way to have a juicy chicken and crispy skin is to ensure you butter underneath the skin and put a lemon on the inside. You can do as much and as little veg as you like, for a standard roast I usually do carrots and brocolli as these go really nice with the honey and mustard dressing. A nice gravy of course and crispy roasties are a must! But there is so much room for subsitutes, you can add in some peas (if you do, don't just boil them add in butter, lots of garlic and parsley, it makes a world of difference.) Stuffing is a great addition and in all honesty I really like the boxed stuff, just make sure to add enough water so its not dry.

In order to fall in love with cooking a roast is to not stress about the timings, that sounds a lot easier said than done, right? Coming from someone who is constantly being told to 'chill' and 'go with the flow' because if i'm 15 minutes early I still stress that i'm late so I can assure it can be done. The secret is to cook your chicken first and know that the longer you let it rest the more juicy it will be, so you leave it on the side wrapped in foil, whilst you have the whole oven to do your roasties and veg. If you need it cooked for a certain time, allow yourself at least 3 hours, due to the long cooking times you can do a lot inbetween, it doesn't need to control the day.

Ingredients

  • Whole Chicken
  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • Tablespoon thyme
  • 2 Tablespoon garlic
  • Salt
  • Paprika
  • Pepper
  • Lemon/Citrus fruit if you don't have
  • 6 large Carrots
  • Head of brocolli
  • 6 large potatoes
  • 2 Tablespoons cornflour
  • 2 Onions
  • Tablespoon Flour
  • Tablespoon honey
  • Tablespoon wholegrain mustard
  • 3 Tablespoons lard or Vegetable oil.
  • Fresh rosemary (optional)
  • Chicken stock

  • Method

    1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
    2. First, get mix 4 tablepsoons of butter with a tablespoon garlic, thyme and some salt and pepper. Now get real friendly with the chicken and using your hands put the butter between the skin and the chicken itself and try to get it over as much as you can. Once you have done this cut open a lemon and put that inside the chicken, whislt also pouring in some thyme and salt.
    3. In a large dish that is at least 5cm in height, roughly chop 2 carrots and an onion and place them in there. Then put the chicken on top and place in the oven. Roughly for 1 hour 20 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken.
    4. Whilst this is cooking begin prepping the rest. First peel and chop the potatoes, put them in a pan of cold salted water and leave to soak for 20 minutes.
    5. Then peel and chop your carrots and prep your brocolli.
    6. Once the potatoes have finished soaking put them onto boil, and steam the brocolli and carrots. The potatoes are done when you can put a fork through.
    7. Season some conflour with some salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder. Then toss the potatoes in this conflour mixture, be quite rough so they are nice and fluffy.
    8. Once the chicken is done and the skin looks nice and crispy, take it out and cover it immediately. We do a layer of tin foil then lay over a teatowel so it stays warm.
    9. Put the temperature up to 200 degrees and place in a baking tray filled with lard or vegetable oil, if you use olive oil you will need a lower temperature and will need to cook for longer. I sometimes like to add garlic cloves and rosemary to season the oil, but make sure to take them out before the garlic burns.
    10. Once the lard or oil is really hot. Put in your potatoes flat side down, ideally taking care to not burn yourself. Put on a timer for 20 minutes.
    11. Put the brocolli and carrots in a baking tray, drizzle on some honey, the whoelgrain mustard, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic, thyme and rosemary. Give this a toss.
    12. Once the 20 minutes are up, turn the potatoes and put in the carrots and brocolli, then set another 20 minute timer.
    13. Once this is all done, turn the oven off, but keep them in so they stay warm.
    14. Now, you are going to finelly chop an onion and put that into a saucepan with a bit of olive oil. Once the onions start going clear add 2 tablespoons of flour and mix this to become a paste.
    15. Take your chicken out of the dish and put the chicken on a carving plate. Then slowly add the juices from the dish to the saucepan and stir rigorisly so it is all mixed in.
    16. Add some extra salt and thyme. Bring to the boil and add a chicken stock cube. Season to taste.
    17. Now you just have to plate up and enjoy!