Sunday roast chicken with lemon, garlic and thyme
The gentlest Sunday dinner there is. A free-range bird, butter under the skin, lemon and garlic in the cavity, 75 minutes in a hot oven.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 1 free-range chicken 1.6 to 1.8 kg
- 1 lemon, halved
- 1 whole head of garlic, halved
- 10 sprigs fresh thyme
- 50 g soft butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 kg small waxy potatoes, halved
- 1 brown onion, quartered optional
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Bring the chicken to room temperature for 45 minutes. Pat the skin dry. Heat oven to 220°C fan.
- Mash the butter with half the thyme, salt and pepper.
- Push the butter under the breast and thigh skin, working from the cavity end.
- Stuff the cavity with one lemon half, the garlic head and remaining thyme.
- Rub the outside with olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper.
- Sit the bird on a bed of onion and potatoes in a roasting tray. Roast 20 minutes at 220°C.
- Drop the oven to 180°C fan and roast a further 50 to 60 minutes, until thigh juices run clear.
- Rest the bird 15 minutes. Crisp the potatoes back in a 220°C oven for 10 minutes while resting.
- Squeeze the second lemon half over the carved bird. Serve.