Roast Chicken & Roots
Serves: 8 people
Takes: Over 1 hour
Sunday lunch just got a whole lot better. There’s roast chicken and then there’s this roast chicken. Full of flavour and the veggies soak up all the goodness as the chicken is roasting above.
I like to use seasonal veggies, and roots are at their best in the Winter months.
Ingredients
2 x 1.5kg whole chicken, cleaned
2 tablespoons softened butter
3 tablespoons Patak’s Tandoori Paste (or your fave spice paste)
1 tablespoon honey
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 carrots, roughly chopped
8 shallots, roughly chopped
2 large sticks celery, roughly chopped
1 bulb garlic, broken into cloves
2 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
2 golden beetroot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 turnips, peeled and roughly chopped
500ml chicken stock
sea salt, to taste
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
Using your fingertips, loosen the skin from the chicken as if you are making a pocket.
In bowl mix together the butter, Pataks Tandoori Paste, honey and chopped garlic.
Rub the marinade under the chicken skin into the pocket. Try and reach as much of the chicken meat as you can without tearing the skin.
Place the rest of the ingredients into a large roast try and lay the chicken on top.
Sprinkle the skin well with salt and transfer to the oven.
Roast for 1hr 20 minutes or until the chicken in cooked through and the juices run clear.
Remove from the oven and place the chicken on a warm plate, covered with foil, to rest for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, you can make a gravy with the juices in the roasting pan if you wish. Personally I like to enjoy them as they are, but you can strain the liquid and thicken with flour if you like. (Keep the roots and veggies warm).
Carve the Roast Chicken and serve with Roots and yummy roasting jus/gravy.
