'One-Tray' Chicken and Potatoes

A fairly quick roast chicken number which I knocked together for supper last night. It's pretty simple, but turns out delicious with gravy and some fresh vegetables, or even just frozen peas if you're feeling lazy. The secret is the lemon - I always include a lemon with my roast potatoes, it does something mysterious and delicious to them which I may not understand, but still can't get enough of. Lemon goes fantastically with a roasting chicken as well. In addition, putting chicken and potatoes in the same tray lets the roasties absorb some of the chicken's flavour while they cook, which makes for extra-delicious potatoes.

Straight on to the recipe today - there's not a lot of extra chatter needed about roasting a chicken I think.


Ingredients
(for 3-4)

One large whole chicken
Five medium-sized potatoes suitable for roasting - King Edwards and Maris Pipers both roast well and are easy to get your hands on
Whole head of garlic
Big handful of whole fresh rosemary stems (don't use dried, just leave it out if you can't get a hold of it)
A whole lemon, fairly large
Knob of butter
Generous splash of olive oil

Method

First off, peel your potatoes and chop to the size you like your roasties. I make mine slightly smaller than instinct tells me, as they're more likely to get nice and crispy in the chicken's cooking time.

Splash some olive oil into a large roasting tin, arrange the rosemary in the centre and make sure it's coated in oil, then settle the chicken on top of the rosemary. Scatter the potatoes around the edges of the tray. Chop the garlic head in half, then break off the individual half-cloves and scatter them over and around the potatoes and chicken. rub a couple over the chicken, and if you like stuff a few into its cavity. Separate your knob of butter into three pieces - one for the cavity of the chicken, and two to balance on or rub over its back. Finally, chop the lemon in half, then half again, and squeeze each quarter over the potatoes and chicken. Drop the squeezed-out rind into each corner of the tray. Now pop the whole thing into a medium oven, around 180 C.


That's the hard part over - all you need to do now is to wait for it all to cook. This will take at least an hour, probably more, and even up to two depending on the size of your chicken and the strength of your oven. Keep checking it regularly, and if the chicken's not browning properly you can turn up the oven to high for ten minutes to get it going. 


It's obviously important to cook your chicken through, to avoid infections like salmonella which are present in raw chicken. To check, stick a knife or skewer into the thickest part of the bird. If the juice which comes out is clear, rather than pink, it's cooked through. You'll be able to see if the meat isn't done when you carve the bird anyway - it should be opaque and a fairly pure white colour - if it's pale pink or at all translucent, you might consider giving it another few minutes in the oven. It gets easier to tell as you become more experienced.


When your chicken is finally done, the potatoes will probably still need a while to finish cooking. This is fine - lift out the chicken from the tray, pop it in a serving dish, cover with some tinfoil and leave in a warm place to rest. All meat needs 'resting' after cooking - it basically means keeping the meat warm but leaving it for a while before eating, which allows the proteins in the meat to relax and distributes the juices more evenly, leading to a juicier and more tender mouthful when you come to eat.


When you remove the chicken, give the pan a good shake to agitate the potatoes and mix the rosemary in more evenly. If you're making gravy, you'll also want to carefully tip the juices from the meat into a separate container for use in a sec, and sprinkle a bit more olive oil over the potatoes to make up for the lost fat.


While the potatoes are finishing off, in a hotter oven if they have a long way to go, you can cook your vegetables - frozen peas are quick, and broccoli is supposed to protect against some forms of cancer, so they'd be my choice. You can also make the gravy. Once the potatoes are done, you're ready to eat. Enjoy a nice roast dinner once in a while!


Finally: GRAVY for this chicken dish

My standard gravy for a chicken roast goes as follows: 

Either skim the fat off the chicken juices, or use one of those clever little separating jugs like this one to get to the good bits of dripping and discard the bad. Put the good bits (the liquid that sinks to the bottom when you leave the juice to sit for 5 minutes, while the fat sits on top) into a saucepan, add a tablespoon of flour, and stir vigorously with a whisk over a low heat until it's all combined. Then pour in about a pint of chicken stock (homemade is best, of course, but Knorr stock cubes are a good substitute if you've run out), whisking all the time. Add a glass of red wine, and leave to simmer gently for five minutes. Taste and season. You can add a spoonful of redcurrant jelly if you like a sweeter sauce, but otherwise that's it. Not too hard, and way better than Bisto!