Roast Chicken, Potato, Greens

 

Roast chicken is one of the greatest family meals ever. The kids love it, I love it, it's healthy and delicious. This is my recipe for the greatest roast ever. Once you understand the method you can turn this into roast anything!! The gravy works for beef, lamb, pork or chicken. Just swap the wines over and the stocks over!! Maybe for lamb use rosemary instead of thyme, for pork use bay and sage, for beef use them all!!

Greens could be peas or beans or spinach or bok choy... Swap corn for carrot if you would prefer. 

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 large roasting free range chicken

1 stick of ceelery

1 onion

1/2 bunch parsley

1/2 bunch thyme

6 garlic cloves

1 large carrot

2 cups white wine

1 lemon

3 TS plain flour

4 cups of chicken stock [homemade if possible]

8 Royal Blue potatoes [desiree are good too]

6 corn cobs

2 bunches of broccolini

2 bunches asparagus

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Method

Chicken

First pat dry your bird and put 1 tablespoon of salt inside the cavity. Then stuff a lemon cut into 2 halves, parsley, thyme into the cavity. You don't need to truss the bird at all. Chop the onion, carrot, celery and place in a pile in your roasting tray with some thyme and parsley and garlic cloves. Sit the bird on top and drizzle with a little oil and then season with salt and pepper. I tied the legs together but you really don't need to!! Pour in the wine and also a cup of water [you may need to check on the liquid in the pan throughout the cook. If it's getting a bit dry add a splash of water

Put into the oven at 180ºC for about 90 minutes. For a smaller chicken  you may need less time.

Potatoes

Peel you potatoes and cut into 3 inch chunks [I cut each into 3 pieces].Boil until just a little under cooked, drain and tip into a tray to roast. Give them a shake to rough up the edges. Drizzle over a few TS of olive oil and roast for 80min, turning twice.

Gravy

Once the chook is done, remove from the roasting tray and cover loosely with foil. Put the roasting pan on a burner and use the back of spoon to mush all the roasted veg up. Make sure you squeeze the gooey centre out of the garlic cloves. Add a splash of white wine and cook for 1 minute then add 3 TS flour. keep stirring and then add the flour. Now keep stirring. It should look mushy and paste like. Add some fresh thyme and then add the stock [1 cup at a time] as it thickens add a little more until you have the right consistency. Season with salt and pepper and then strain to serve. I always have some homemade stock in the freezer that I freeeze in batches, then just microwave to thaw and use for gravy, stews, risotto etc..

     

Greens and Corn

Simply char grill dry on the BBQ or a griddle plate in your kitchen until tender, then dress with lemon juice, a splash of olive oil and salt and pepper. You could also charr the corn on the BBQ or simply boil for a few minutes.

Serving

Put the potatoes in a couple of bowls, the greens in a bowl, the corn in a bowl, portion up the chicken and scatter with some fresh thyme.