Simple Roast Chicken

Simple, flavourful, and made to match a balanced Chardonnay.

You’ll need:

1 whole chicken

2 lemons, quartered

6 cloves of garlic

A few sprigs of thyme or any herb you have on hand

Olive oil, salt, and pepper

How to make it:

Stuff the chicken with garlic cloves, lemon quarrters, and herbs.

Rub with oil, season well, and roast at 190°C for 1hr 20min (or until juices run clear).

Serve with buttery mash or roasted potatoes – and a glass of oaked Chardonnay, of course.

Notes:  These will be wordy sorry, might be something here to up your chicken game.

• Current NZ health and safety guidelines talk about not washing the chicken, this is to do with splashing of chicken juices.  I always tidy the area, and carefully wash my chicken before drying it with paper towel or a clean tea towel that goes straight into  a hot wash.
• If you have the time (and space in your fridge) then wash dry and season your chicken inside and out with salt before placing on a baking rack in the fridge to dry out further.  This method, dry-brine, is my prefered way of seasoning all meats. It leads to a very even dispribution of salt as the moisture initially beads on the outside before it is drawn through the meat again.
• Heat your oven to 210-215, then drop the temp again after the chicken is put in.
• Always add at least onion and carrot to the base of the dish, celery and herbs if you have them, it just leads to a superior gravy or jus.
• Once the chicken is removed to the serving dish I make gravy by adding 2-3 tablespoons of flour mixed into 1/2 cup of cold water to the juices, stir and simmer until thick.  Taste, might need a jot of honey and pepper.
• Or I do a version of this Nigella Lawson recipe and coat torn bread in the jus and add back to the oven until crisp.  Beware this is so delicious it causes family fights.