This roast chicken recipe is a typical Sunday lunch for Gino D’Acampo. ‘My boys absolutely love this dish and it doesn’t take any time to prepare so you can enjoy your weekend while it’s cooking’
Ingredients
- 1 large chicken, about 2kg
- 2tbsp rosemary leaves
- 2tbsp thyme leaves
- 10 garlic cloves, 6 peeled and 4 unpeeled
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 carrots, cut into 3cm chunks
- 3 courgettes, cut into 3cm chunks
- 2 potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
- 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6.
Cut the chicken in half lengthways using a sharp knife (straight down the middle of the breast and then down one side of the backbone) and make several cuts into the skin side.
Place the rosemary, thyme and peeled garlic cloves on a board and chop finely. Stuff the mixture into the cuts in the chicken skin and season all over with salt and pepper.
Place all the prepared vegetables with the unpeeled garlic in a roasting tray, drizzle with half of the oil, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
Lay the chicken on top of the vegetables, skin-side up, drizzle with the remaining oil and roast in the centre of the oven for 35 mins, basting the chicken with the cooking juices from the bottom of the tray after 15 mins.
To check that the chicken is cooked, pierce each piece with a skewer: the juices should run clear.
Remove the chicken from the tray, cut each piece into three and replace on top of the vegetables. Roast for a further 8 mins.
Remove the tray from the oven and rest for 3 mins, allowing the meat to relax and become more tender.
To serve, place all the vegetables on a large serving dish, arrange the chicken pieces on top and spoon over any juices.
Top tip for making Gino D’Acampo’s roasted chicken
- If you want to make the dish even healthier, discard the skin of the chicken before cooking and cover with some tinfoil. -Get a good free-range chicken so the flavour will be ten times better.
