Introduction
A whole chicken roasted in the oven with lemon, garlic and herbs, with potatoes cooking in its juices underneath, is one of the great family meals. It makes Sunday lunch, and the leftovers make sandwiches, salads and soup during the week. The bones make a stock.
Roasting meat before the fire is as old as cooking. In Europe, a roast chicken was long a dish for Sundays and holidays, as poultry was expensive; in France, the poulet rôti of the Sunday market is still a ritual. Buy the best chicken you can afford. The only real risk is undercooking: check the juices or use a thermometer.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken, about 1.6 kg, at room temperature
- 1 lemon, cut in half
- 1 head of garlic, cut in half across
- a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary
- 30 g soft butter
- 1 kg potatoes, cut into large chunks
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and black pepper
Tools
- A roasting tin
- An oven
- A meat thermometer (optional)
Preparation
- Heat the oven to 220 °C (200 °C fan). Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before.
- Put the potatoes in the tin, toss them with the olive oil, salt and pepper, and push them to the sides.
- Pat the chicken dry. Put the lemon, half the garlic and the herbs inside. Rub the skin all over with the butter and season it well with salt and pepper.
- Set the chicken in the middle of the tin, breast up, with the rest of the garlic. Roast for 20 minutes.
- Lower the oven to 190 °C (170 °C fan) and roast for 50 to 60 minutes more, turning the potatoes once.
- The chicken is done when the juices run clear, not pink, when you pierce the thickest part of the thigh, or when a thermometer reads 75 °C there.
- Rest the chicken on a board for 15 minutes, loosely covered with foil, while the potatoes finish crisping in the oven. Carve and serve with the juices from the tin.