Roast chicken with autumn blaze vegetables
(serves 4)
This recipe is based on roasting a whole chicken but it works equally well for jointed pieces. Buying whole chicken saves a lot of money and jointing a raw chicken is not difficult.
1 medium size, free range chicken
1 butternut squash or pumpkin
4 carrots
4 sweet potatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon – pierced with the tip of a knife
Olive Oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh thyme
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°/gas mark 6 for a whole chicken or 180°C/gas mark 4 for a jointed chicken. Season the chicken cavity generously with sea salt and pepper and place the lemon inside. Place in a roasting tin containing a little olive oil. Roast for 45min per kg/20min per lb.
- Peel the carrots, squash and sweet potatoes and cut into large chunks.
- Finely chop the rosemary; peel and slice the garlic.
- Put the vegetables in a separate roasting tin with a generous amount of olive oil. Sprinkle the sliced garlic and chopped rosemary over and use your hands to give it a few turns to make sure it’s well covered in oil.
- The vegetables should go in about 20 minutes before the chicken is ready – they’ll need 1/2 hour but the chicken is coming out first. Turn the vegetables over once while they are roasting.
- Remove the chicken from the oven, lift it out of the tin, cover losely with tin foil and let it rest while the vegetables are given their final 10 minutes.
- Put the tin on the hob, turn the heat up and allow the lemony juices to bubble up. Add a splash of white wine and a pinch of sugar. Taste the seasoning and add a little more salt and pepper if required.
- Strain into a sauce jug. # Serve the chicken with the roast vegetables and a little jus. A simple green side salad goes nicely with it.
Posted: 04 November 2008