Perfect Roast Chicken with Garlic and Thyme
I’m writing the start of this blog post from Cornwall. It’s late September and we have taken a little family trip to our favourite place. This county fills me with energy every time I visit. Standing with my feet in the sea and breathing in the fresh sea air will never get old. Neither will roast chicken on a Sunday – this recipe is the perfect way to get a succulent, juicy bird with zero fuss.
September Sun
Equipment
- Cast iron casserole/roasting pot or similar
Ingredients
- 1 kg whole chicken ideally free range and corn fed
- 1 whole bulb of garlic
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Place your chicken in a cast iron casserole/roasting pot or similar. It is important that the bird fits in the dish with the lid on. I also take my chicken out of the fridge for 30 minutes beforehand so that it’s not chilled at the point of cooking.
- Drizzle or spray the chicken with extra virgin olive oil
- Sprinkle sea salt on to the chicken – roughly 1/2 tsp
- Sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper and the leaves from three sprigs of thyme.
- Break the bulb of garlic in half and add to the pot.
- Spray the sides of the enamel pot with olive oil and put the lid on the pot. This extra oil is only necessary if you have used an olive oil spray dispenser like me. If you have drizzled your oil there will be more oil in the pot.
- Place your pot on the middle shelf of a pre heated oven 160ºC Fan/Gas 4/ 350ºF
- Roast for 2 hours. 1hr 40 minutes with the lid on. Take the lid off for the last 20 minutes
- Once the 2 hours are up, remove the pot from the oven. Check that the chicken is cooked and then leave to rest in the pot, lid off, for 15 minutes. This is important because the meat will be much more tender once it has rested. You can see in the video I am easing the dark meat from the carcass with a fork, that’s how tender it is.
- While the chicken rests you can finish your sides. I made a simple salad and served the chicken with baked potatoes… Incidentally the potatoes baked in the oven, wrapped in foil, for the same length of time as the chicken
- Carve/shred your chicken ready to serve
- NB: The juices from the bottom of the pot are full of flavour, they would make a perfect base for your gravy. On this occasion I drizzled some of the juices over the potatoes which was a real treat.
Video
Notes
Roast chicken will likely always be my favourite roast meat. There are so many recipes out there, I love some of the classic Jamie Oliver ones. But for me, this roast chicken recipe is perfect because it is so simple. It’s prepped in minutes and then the oven takes care of the rest.