Easy Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

1. 8 lb free range chicken
2. 2 medium carrots
3. 2 medium onions
4. 2 sticks celery
5. 1 bulb garlic
6. Olive oil
7. Sea salt
8. Freshly ground black pepper
9. 1 lemon
10. Small bunch fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or  sage, or a mixture.

Method: To prepare your chicken Take chicken out of fridge 30 minutes before it goes in the oven. Preheat your oven to 240C/475F/gas 9. There’s no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them. Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled. Pile veg. and garlic into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper rubbing it all over the bird. Carefully prick the lemon all over with the tip of a sharp knife, or you can put the lemon into a microwave for about 40 seconds to bring out the flavour. Put the lemon inside the bird’s cavity along with your choice of herbs. To cook your chicken Place the chicken on top of the veg. in the roasting tray and put it in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 200C400F/gas 6 and cook the chicken for approx. 2.5 hours (use a thermometer to 180 degrees internal heat) if you’re doing roast potatoes and veg. this is the time to get them in the oven for the last 45 minutes of cooking. Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if veg looks dry, add a splash of water to the tray to stop them burning. When cooked, take tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a cutting board to rest for 15 minutes or so. Cover with a layer of tinfoil and a tea towel and put aside. Now is the time to make gravy, by pressing the goodness out of the veg on the bottom of the roasting tray and scraping all the lovely brown bits from the bottom of the roasting tray. After carving the bird you will have a delicious carcass for soup and using more great veggies!