Perfect Roast Chicken

This chicken smelled so good, I ripped off some of the crispy, piping hot skin before I got a chance to take a picture of it!  The stabbed lemon and herbs stuffed into the cavity of the chicken sounds so simple and plain, but let me tell you, this will be one of the best bites of chicken you will EVER have.  Follow the recipe to the letter and you'll have a dangerously delicious and healthy meal that your family will love (or that you can live on for a week!).

It's a Jamie Oliver recipe from his Food Revolution cookbook, so be sure to try it!

Perfect Roast Chicken

Serves 4-6

1 x approximately 3 1/2-pound chicken, preferably free range, organic, or higher welfare

2 medium onions

2 stalks celery

1 bulb of garlic

olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon

a small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or sage, or a mixture (I used a mixture and it was fantastic)

To prepare your chicken

Take your chicken out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. 

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

There's no need to peel the vegetables- just give them a wash and roughly chop them.

Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled.

Pile all the vegetables and garlic into the middle of the large roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. (The chicken roasts on top of the vegetables.)

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the bird.

Carefully prick the lemon all over, using th tip of a sharp knife (if you have a microwave, you could pop the lemon in there for 40 seconds at this point as this will really bring out the flavor).

Put the lemon inside the chicken's cavity, with the bunch of herbs.

To cook your chicken

Place the chicken on top of the vegetables in the roasting pan and put it into the preheated oven.

Turn the heat down immediately to 400 degrees fahrenheit and cook the chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes. 

Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if the vegetables look dry, add a splash of water to the pan to stop them from burning.  (Be careful, this may cause the pan to steam up at your face if you're too close to it.)

When cooked, take the pan out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so.

To carve your chicken

Remove any string from the chicken and take off the wings.

Cut through the joint and pull the leg off.

Repeat on the other side, then cut each leg between the thigh and the drumstick so you end up with four portions of dark meat.

Place these on a serving platter.

You should now have a clear space to carve the rest of your chicken.

Angle the knife along the breastbone and carve one side off, then the other.

When you get down to teh fussy bits, just use your fingers to pull all the meat off, and turn the chicken over to get all the tasty, juicy bits from underneat.  You should be left with a stripped carcass, and a platter full of lovely meat and roasted veggies.

note:  Jamie Oliver has a recipe for gravy and bread sauce for this, but I made the chicken without gravy since it was so moist and delicious.  Plus Kyle, Laela and Darin were hungry, so I had to get to serving dinner!