I’ve included a recipe for roast chicken as how can I not? This is perfect served with my lemon roast potatoes which I will share with you in my ‘sides’ recipes soon.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 whole chicken – approx 1.5kg

1 lemon

crunchy salt and ground black pepper

Olive oil – a large glug or two

Method

Pre heat oven to 200C / 180C fan

If your chicken has cooking timings on the packet then please adhere to those.

My chicken was fresh with no instructions so for a 1.5kg chicken I roast on 180C in a fan oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Place some foil or greaseproof paper in the bottom of your roasting tray. Place your chicken on top and fill the cavity with half a lemon. Squeeze the other half over. Pour over a large glug of olive oil and rub into the chicken followed with a good grind or two of crunchy salt and cracked black pepper.

Cover the chicken tightly with foil. I don’t bother to add veg in the tray as if serving with a salad I don’t need to make gravy out of the juices so I add the remaining half of the lemon instead.

Roast in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes or half of the recommended oven timings for the weight, then remove the foil covering and transfer back to the oven for another 45 minutes or remainder of the recommended cooking time. Ensure you baste the chicken with the lemony oil as this will make the chicken juicy and tender so feel free to do this again before the end of cooking time.

You’ll start to see the chicken skin getting all crispy and golden as the skin starts to brown nicely. To check if fully cooked remove from the oven, pierce fattest part of chicken with a skewer to ensure the juices that run out are clear. If so baste over with the lemony juices from the tray and allow to rest a little before carving.

Tip: If serving with a roast dinner and gravy rather than with lemon potatoes and a salad I simply add a large onion peeled and quartered to the tray along with a couple of halved carrots and a generous splash or two of wine. Sit the chicken on top of this. This will help create part of a delicious gravy. Herbs are also a nice addition. Thyme pairs beautifully with roast chicken.