There is a video attached for this chicken roast. Toss the veggies into a pan, get some of the fennel mix under the skin, lay the chicken on a bed of potatoes, season, squeeze of fresh lemon, olive oil, seal everything together, drop the oven temperature for the slow roast and relax!
Taste and flavor are important but so is cleaning hence my little note below on cleaning the chicken!
HOW TO MAKE THIS CHICKEN ROAST
First things first, get everything you need together including the string or twine as most commonly known when I was growing up. In most of my recipes I always say, if you don't have this then use that or you can substitute with the other etc. Not in this recipe however, if you want the same results then there is no substituting! This recipe method results in a soft and tender chicken with loads of juices and perfectly roasted veggies.
CLEANING THE CHICKEN BEFORE ROASTING
Yes we all want a saucy, sticky, lemon and herb, yogurt marinade that rocks our world, that's wonderful and worth it but cleaning the chicken is the most important thing. In particular, chicken of all the meats.
In this video I show you how I clean the chicken because that's how I remember always cleaning a chicken. As a matter of fact, I have cooked so many roast chicken dishes that I cannot believe I don't have a roast chicken recipe on my blog! It's a disaster 🙂
RINSE, SCRAPE, BURN, RINSE AND DRY
The amount of time shown in the video is not as long as I actually rinsed it because no-one wants to watch someone rinsing a chicken for long enough. Fortunately, this chicken was a beautiful buy, clean, fresh and organic but you still have to rinse it inside and out, scrape the yellow film and burn any other odd things. Look at this way, if you don't want to eat it, remove it.
OTHER CHICKEN RECIPES
- Roasted Sticky Chicken and Veggies
- Crunchy Chicken Stir Fry Recipe
- Easy Homemade Marinated Chicken
- Homemade Saucy Chicken – Quick & Easy
- Chicken Chickpeas and Lentil Curry – Protein Packed
- Chicken Curry and Red Wine Recipe
- Delicious Butter Chicken in Coconut Milk
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OVEN TEMPERATURES
I just want to touch a little on this subject because it is the most important thing in a recipe after the actual ingredients.
My suggestion especially if a) you are new to cooking or b) you wonder why recipes don't always come out right or maybe never come out right or c) just for information.
Watch your oven temperature! Since having to write recipes I find that I'm always in a tangle of the do's and don'ts because I have never been someone to follow a recipe, I'm a home cook, I'm used to eye balling things but having a food blog has taught me to measure and write. Mostly for someone that may be reading my recipes and wants the exact measurements, This is also why I try and make a video (when possible) for my recipes.
GUIDELINES
Use recipe temperatures when reading a recipe as a guideline because we may have the same make oven and trust me the temperatures will be different, these things are just finicky. You are in a different kitchen using different appliances etc so study your own stove temperature and if you don't have a thermometer then buy one it's worth the money.
CHICKEN ROAST
You will need a few fresh ingredients here for the vegetable roast. In saying that however this is a fresh organic chicken, weighed an average of 1.4kg and was bought fresh as opposed to defrosting a frozen chicken. If you are going to use a frozen chicken then make sure that its completely defrosted before cooking.
For the same reason that we tie the chicken with twine is the same reason the chicken is better left to thaw until room temperature has been reached. It makes for better cooking, more even cooking and that does play a role in the taste. At least that's my opinion.
REASONS TO MAKE THIS CHICKEN ROAST
- because you really want to!
- wholesome
- tender and juicy
- loads of juice to go around
- smells and tastes amazing
- one pot meal
- oven roast
- looks amazing on the table!
Watch the vidoe on my youtube channel.
Chicken Roast with Potatoes, Peppers and Red Onion
Ingredients
- 1.4 kg whole chicken
- fresh fennel leaves
- olive oil
- fresh garlic
- coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- black pepper
- 1 ½ fresh lemons
- red & yellow peppers baby peppers
- red onion
- potatoes rinsed, peeled and sliced flat (see video)
- 1 rinsed peeled and par-boiled potato
- butter melted
- butter squares
- oregano
- Chicken/vegetable stock
- fresh basil
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken, towel dry, cut off any unwanted bits, remove any hairs, rinse again and towel dry. See the video for this.
- Heat the oven to 220 C. and get your oven tray out. Large enough so the chicken is placed comfortable and there is space for the veg.
- Slice the fennel leaves into tiny bits and mix them with a drop of olive oil just enough to keep them moist. Set aside.
- Get 3 cloves of fresh garlic into a mortar and pestle (if you don't have one then use a grinder, blender or even a rolling pin! Anything to crush everything together)Add the coarse salt, olive oil and fennel seeds. Grind/Mix. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon (½ a lemon).Return the fennel leaves that have been soaking in olive oil and add them to the mortar and pestle/grinder.
- Use a long teaspoon (like a cake teaspoon), or a regular size teaspoon to get the mix under the chicken skin. Gently push the teaspoon under the skin and keep filling, back and front of the chicken until the mix is finish. You can also reserve some for the cavity of the chicken. See notes.
- Take one of your red peppers, cut the top off, shake it to get the seeds out.Gently press the garlic with a spoon or back of a knife to release the aromas. Peels on. Put them inside the pepper, Put that inside the cavity. Add a ½ lemon inside the cavity and now add the par boiled potato, also inside the cavity. Once everything is nice and tight, get your twine. Tie the chicken in such a way that when roasting, nothing is going to fall out. Tuck the wings under the chest so they don't burn before the chicken is done. You can also take small pieces of foil and wrap them around the edges of the wings because those tend to burn quick if exposed to heat for long. All this in inside the video.
- Get the oven tray and lay the rinsed, peeled potatoes down as a base for the chicken roast.
- Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt over the potatoes.Lay your dressed chicken on top of the potatoes for roasting, At this point the chicken should be filled, herbed, salted and tied, with the wings neatly tucked under the body.
- Roughly tear the remaining peppers and onion around the roasting dish.
- Pour over about a tablespoon of melted butter over the chicken.
- Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil in a side bowl, add a grated fresh garlic clove and a sprinkle of oregano and using a pastry/cooking brush, brush this oil mix all over the chicken.
- Last small sprinkle of salt & fresh cracked pepper.
- Pour about a cup of stock into the pan over the veggies.
- Give the tray a little shake to make sure the stock is everywhere.
- Place butter knobs/squares all over, one on top of the chicken. Place it in the oven, drop the heat to 200 C and leave the door shut for 15 to 20 minutes. Open the oven and baste the chicken. Use a large enough spoon, collect the liquid and keep pouring over the chicken to make sure you've basted all round.
- You just need to do this one more time and then bake the chicken for about 30 minutes till nice and golden brown. Tip:Remember we all have different oven temperatures so use my time as a guideline and then go with your oven temp. If you find that it's been half hour and the chicken is not looking brown enough on top then your oven temp is bit low, just up it slightly and then watch it!
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