Rustic Roast Chicken Recipe 445

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.
• Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook the bacon until it's brown. Pour in 1/2 cup white wine, 1/2 cup water, crumble in 1 bouillon cube and season with a generous amount of pepper. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Combine 3 tbsp oil, seasoned salt, paprika powder, loads of black pepper and dried thyme. Give it a good stir. Place the chicken in a roasting tray. Brush the chicken with the marinade. Peel the carrot and cut it in coarse pieces. Don't make the pieces too big, though. Do the same with the onion, bell pepper and potatoes. Place all the vegetable and potatoes around the chicken. Pour the wine infused broth all over the vegetables. Careful not to pour it over the chicken or you'll rinse off the marinade. Randomly place some garlic cloves in there as well. Leave the skin on so they will roast inside their skin and become all sweet and yummy. Add about 5 or 6 sage leaves. They will get charred, so you'll have to remove them after roasting. Roast the chicken and vegetables in a preheated oven at 400F (200C) for 55 to 60 minutes. depending on how big the vegetables and potatoes are, of course. After half an hour has passed by, and the house is slowly filling itself with the scent of roasted chicken and onions, take the roasting tray out of the oven and drizzle some of juices lurking at the bottom over the chicken and vegetables. Put the oven tray back in the oven for another 30 minutes. Check the chicken and vegetables for readiness. remove the charred sage and replace it with some fresh sage for garnish.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425*F.
• Toss the potatoes, carrots, parsnips, shallots, mushrooms, and garlic with the oil and a generous pinch of salt and pepper in a large roasting pan.
• Cut the lemon inhalf, and rub the chickens with the lemon flesh and then the butter; season the birds generously with salt and pepper.
• Place half a lemon and two sprigs each of tarragon, rosemary and thyme in the cavity of each chicken.
• Arrange the chickens on top of the vegetables, and roast in the lower half of the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the chickens are cooked and the skin is crisp, basting the chickens every 20 minutes.
• If the birds are not crisp, increase the oven temperature to 475*F for the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking.
• Remove from the oven, cover the chickens loosely with aluminum foil, and allow the chickens and vegetables to rest in the pan for 20 minutes.
• Remove the chickens and vegetables to a platter, pour off the fat in the pan, deglaze with the wine or broth and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Sprinkle the carved chicken and vegetables with the sea salt and serve with the pan juices.

Steps:

• Start by preparing the potatoes. This can be done well in advance. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the potatoes, whole and unpeeled and boil, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until very soft. Remove potatoes from the water to a plate until needed. It doesn't matter if they get cold.
• Now, divide each bunch of herbs roughly into four: one quarter to go between the skin and the breast; one quarter to go in the cavity; one quarter to scatter over the chicken; and one quarter reserved for garnish. Strip the leaves from one quarter of the oregano and one quarter of the thyme discarding any woody stalks. Leave the remaining herbs intact.
• Now, wash the cavity of the chicken with cold running water and dry the chicken very well, inside and out, with paper towels. Using a pair of kitchen shears or a sharp pair of scissors, trim the wing tips from the chicken as these will burn at the high temperature you're going to cook at.
• Preheat your oven to 240C or 230C fan-forced and make sure there's a rack in the centre, or just below the centre and plenty of room above for the chicken.
• Place the chicken on a plate and, carefully, working from the neck end, slip your finger between the skin and the flesh on the right breast of the chicken, breaking through the membrane and separating the skin from the flesh, being careful not to pierce the skin with your fingernail. Try to wriggle your finger down near the drumstick and separate some of the skin from it too. Repeat for the left breast.
• In a bowl, roughly mix together the butter cubes, the herb leaves you've stripped from their stalks, and the chopped, peeled garlic.
• Using your fingers, push this mixture carefully into the pockets you've formed between the skin and the flesh of the chicken breasts and, if possible, a little way down towards the drumsticks. It doesn't matter if a bit falls out, you can just shove that into the cavity later.
• Put the chopped, unpeeled garlic and one, 'one-quarter' bunch each of the oregano and thyme into the cavity of the chicken. You should now have two bunches each of the oregano and thyme left, and one bulb of unpeeled garlic cloves.
• If using a large lemon, cut in half and squeeze the juice from one half only. If using two small lemons, squeeze one whole lemon. Drizzle the lemon juice over the top of the chicken, and place the squeezed portion/s of the lemon into the cavity.
• Thinly slice the unsqueezed large lemon half, or whole small lemon, and set slices aside.
• Line a large baking pan with silicone (baking) paper. (Be sure to use a pan that will withstand a high heat. Non-stick pans are probably not suitable for this as you may ruin the coating.) Lining the pan is optional, but it makes washing up a lot easier and stops stuff from sticking.
• Place the sliced onion in the base of the pan and place the chicken on top.
• Now, arrange the lemon slices over the top of the chicken, and scatter the unpeeled garlic cloves over the top, being sure to tuck some of the garlic and the lemon slices down between the breast and the leg.
• Sprinkle generously with sea salt and cracked black pepper.
• Now, take the potatoes you cooked earlier and, using a potato masher, push down on each one gently until the skin splits and the potato inside breaks up a bit. Don't worry if they fall apart a little bit. It's supposed to look rustic! They should look squashed but not flattened.
• Now, arrange the potatoes around the chicken in the baking pan and sprinkle them with salt and pepper, then drizzle the potatoes and the chicken generously with olive oil. By all means use extra virgin olive oil if you like it, but it's not essential, ordinary olive oil will do.
• Finally, scatter the remaining herbs over the chicken and the potatoes.
• Spoon four tablespoons of water into the baking pan then place it into the pre-heated oven on the centre shelf.
• Roast for at 240C or 230C fan-forced, for about 50 minutes to 1 hour or until the chicken is cooked.
• Remove chicken from oven and place on a plate to rest for 10 minutes.
• If potatoes are not quite crisp enough, place them in another pan and return to the oven while you prepare the sauce.
• Now, pick out any obviously burned bits or herb stalks from the baking pan, as well as the onion rings and any bits of lemon that have fallen off the chicken. Discard these bits.
• Using the back of a teaspoon, squash any unpeeled garlic cloves which are still soft and extract the soft garlic pulp from inside and discard the papery bits. Transfer the garlic pulp to a heat proof jug.
• Now, pour the drippings from the pan into the same jug. Don't worry if you haven't got a lot of liquid at this stage, you'll get quite a bit when you cut the chicken.
• Add the chicken stock to the jug.
• Allow this mixture to stand for a few minutes then skim or spoon the excess oil off the top.
• Now, check the potatoes if they're still in the oven and remove if ready, or leave them there if you want them even crispier.
• Now, dust off any burned bits of lemon, garlic or herbs on top of the chicken, divide the chicken into serving portions and pour off any liquid into the jug.
• Add extra lemon-juice, salt and pepper to the jug to taste.
• Heat the sauce in the jug in the microwave until hot.
• Serve chicken, drizzled generously with the hot lemony, garlicky sauce, along with the crispy smashed potatoes and garnish with the reserved herbs.
• A Greek Salad is a perfect accompaniment to this meal.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange oven rack so that it is in center of oven. Lay bread slices in a thick, heavy-duty metal roasting pan in one layer. (Try not to use a thin or dark colored pan, which may cause bread to burn: see note.) Drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Rub 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper inside cavity of chicken. Stuff cavity with garlic, bay leaf, lemon and thyme. Rub outside of chicken with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle all over with remaining salt and pepper. Place it breast side up on bread.
• Roast chicken until it is deeply browned and juices run clear when thigh is pricked with a knife, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before carving. Serve chicken with bread from pan.