Perfect roast chicken

Method

Chicken

1. Remove the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook it, to let it come up to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 240°C.
3. Wash and roughly chop the vegetables. There’s no need to peel them. Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled.
4. Pile all the veg, garlic and herbs into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with oil.
5. Drizzle the chicken with oil and season well with sea salt and black pepper, then rub all over the bird. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.
6. Carefully prick the lemon all over, using the tip of a sharp knife (if you have a microwave, pop the lemon in for 40 seconds at this point as this really brings out the flavour). Put the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity, with the bunch of herbs.
7. Place the tray in the oven, then turn the heat down immediately to 200°C and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.
8. If you’re doing roast potatoes and veggies, this is the time to crack on with them. Get them into the oven for the last 45 minutes of cooking.
9. Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if the veg look dry, add a splash of water to the tray to stop them from burning.
10. When the chicken is cooked, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so. Cover it with a layer of tin foil and a tea towel and leave aside while you make your gravy.

Gravy

11. Carefully tilt the tray and spoon away most of the fat, leaving the veg and juices behind.
12. Put the tray on a medium heat on the hob, stir in the flour and mash the veg up with a potato masher or wooden spoon.
13. Pour in the stock or boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring and scraping up the sticky bits, until thickened.
14. Pour through a sieve into a jug, pressing the veg to get all the flavour out. Season to taste and keep warm.

Carving

15. Remove any string and take off the wings (break them up and add to your gravy, along with the veg trivet, for mega flavour). Carefully cut down between the leg and the breast. Cut through the joint and pull the leg off.
16. Repeat on the other side, then cut each leg between the thigh and the drumstick so you end up with four portions of dark meat. Place these on a serving platter.
17. Angle the knife along the breastbone and carve one side off, then the other.
18. When you get down to the fussy bits, use your fingers to pull all the meat off, and turn the chicken over to get all the juicy bits from underneath. Keep the stripped carcass for stock.