My favourite meal is my mom’s roast chicken and veggies. I don’t know how she does it, but I swear she sprinkles magic over it to make it taste as good as it does.
My mom has taught me the recipe and I’m slowly but surely getting it as close to hers as possible.
Sox is a massive fan and it’s rare that we ever have left overs.
Ingredients:
1 free range chicken
Fresh basil
1 lemon
Himalayan Salt
Black pepper
Olive oil
Sweet potatoes/other roasting vegetables
Method:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees.
2. Rinse your chicken thoroughly and place in a roasting tray.
3. Cut up your sweet potatoes (keep the skin on but make sure you scrub them so that there is no dirt left) and any other vegetables you’d like to roast and scatter them around the chicken.
4. Chop the fresh basil. I used my awesome herb scissors I recently purchased and then place the basil underneath the skin. This will make it burst with flavour. Try to push it under as far as you can, without breaking the skin.
5. Cut the lemon in half and place it into the chicken cavity. The other half squeeze all over the chicken.
6. Give a good sprinkle of salt and a crack of black pepper. You don’t need any other spice – the lemon, basil, salt and pepper combo is delicious! You’ll see, it won’t even need a gravy!
7. Give a generous coat of olive oil and if you’re feeling extra loving, massage it into the skin.
8. Pop into the oven and roast for about 50 minutes. After 25 minutes, open the oven and move the potatoes around to ensure they don’t stick and also that they don’t burn. Spoon some of the juices and oil over the skin of the chicken and pop back into the oven.
9. To ensure the chicken is cooked through, stick a knife in by the leg… clear juice should run out. It shouldn’t be pink. If it is pink, pop it back into the oven and monitor closely.
If you want the skin extra crispy, put the oven on grill for the last 5 minutes – again, monitor this closely.
10. Once it’s done, remove it from the oven and let it stand for about 5 minutes.
11. Carve up, throw the lemon from inside the cavity away, serve and devour!
I guarantee you’ll hardly have any leftovers and if you do, it tastes delicious cold the next day with a fresh green salad.
The chicken meat is tender, soft and juicy, the skin crispy and the sweet potatoes crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. It’s pure perfection on a cold Winters night.
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