Step 4: Carefully pull the top chicken skin and slowly stuff the butter paste under the chicken skin.
- Serves: Cooks one whole chicken
- Prep: 15 mins
- Cook: 1 hr 10 mins
For those who have not roasted a chicken before, it is definitely easier than it looks. This roast chicken recipe is relatively fuss-free because the oven is doing 90% of the work.
In addition to the ingredients listed below, you need the following tools: grater or microplane, kitchen twine, wire rack, oven tray and pastry brush.
In addition to the ingredients listed below, you need the following tools: grater or microplane, kitchen twine, wire rack, oven tray and pastry brush.
Ingredients
- 1 lemon
- 30 grams butter cubed
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 whole chicken innards and neck removed
- 2-3 sprigs thyme for best results, submerge in hot water for 30 seconds
- 2-3 sprigs rosemary for best results, submerge in hot water for 30 seconds
- 15 garlic cloves slightly bruised
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp garlic powder optional
Instructions
- Grate some lemon zest from the lemon skin. Set aside the lemon.
- In a small bowl, mix cubed butter, chopped parsley and lemon zest together to form a paste.
- Place chicken on a flat chopping board, breast side up. For aesthetics, tuck the wings under the chicken and tie the thighs together using kitchen twine.
- Carefully pull the top chicken skin (where the breast portion is – see photo above) and slowly stuff the paste made in step 2 under the chicken skin. Be careful not to tear the chicken skin while doing so.
- Cut lemon in two and microwave for 40 seconds. Carefully use the tip of a small knife to prick all over the lemon. Squeeze the lemon juices into the cavity and put the whole lemon inside (technique learnt from Jamie Oliver’s recipe).
- Besides the lemon, stuff the cavity with thyme, rosemary, garlic and bay leaves. If you have leftover herbs, sprinkle them around the pan or on the chicken.
- Brush the chicken skin all over with olive oil using a pastry brush. Season chicken with salt, black pepper and garlic powder (if using).
- Rest the chicken, breast side up, on a wire rack sitting on a bigger roasting tray to collect the chicken juices (see second photo above). Bake chicken in preheated oven at 200°C (400°F) for about 40 minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and brush the chicken with the juices that are collected in the drip pan. If there are not enough juices, use olive oil.
- Return tray to oven and bake for another 30 minutes, increasing the oven heat to 220°C during the last 10 minutes. The roasting time may differ with your oven, but basically you should roast until the chicken is nicely golden brown.
