How to make the BEST roast chicken?
The best roast chicken has garlic herb butter under and on the skin, is stuffed with lemon and herbs, roasted until it is crispy and deep golden on the outside, and juicy on the inside. A whole chicken is really easy for roasting and easy to prepare.
Spoon the garlic-herb-butter under the skin then simply spread it from the outside. Hold it upright and drizzle in whatever you find easier!
TIP: under the skin use all the butter, plus garlic burns on the skin so you don’t want too much on the surface. Place the chicken on a bed of garlic and onion after it is all buttered up.
- 1 whole chicken
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large bunch fresh thyme
- 1 lemon, halved
- 1 garlic, cut in half
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
- 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
- 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
- 1 bulb of fennel, and cut into wedges
- Olive oil
Preparation :
- 30 minutes before you want to cook the chicken remove from the fridge to let it come up to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 240°C
- Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled, wash and roughly chop the vegetables.
- Into the middle of a large roasting tray Pile all the veg, garlic and herbs and drizzle with oil.
- Place the chicken on top of the vegetables after drizzling the chicken with oil and seasoning well with sea salt and black pepper, then rub all over.
- Turn the heat down after placing the tray in the oven immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.
- Add a splash of water to the tray to stop them from burning if the veg look dry, Grease the chicken halfway through cooking
- Take the tray out of the oven once the chicken is cooked, and transfer it to a board leave for 15 minutes. Put a layer of tin foil and a tea towel and leave aside while you make your gravy.
- Cut down between the leg and the breast, through the joint and pull the leg off carefully. Take off the wings and remove any string.
- To end up with four portions of dark meat cut each leg between the thigh and the drumstick. Place these on a serving platter.
- To carve the rest of the chicken you should now have a clear space. Along the breastbone and carve one side off, angle the knife then the other.
- Use your fingers to pull all the meat off, when you get down to the fussy bits and turn the chicken over to get all the tasty, juicy bits from underneath.
- You should be left with a stripped carcass, and a platter full of lovely meat that you can serve with your piping hot gravy and some delicious roast veg.