Rozy's Roast Chicken

I must say that watching countless numbers of cooking programmes on my favourite channel has some how increased my confidence in cooking.  Today, after countless snide remarks by my children that I only watch the programmes but never try any of the recipes, I finally decided to try one.  This one is my version of Gina Steer's Oven Roast Chicken.  I used Italian herbs (since that's all I have in the pantry!) instead of oregano and thyme, plus I included carrots to add some vegetables to the roast.  Needless to say, my family enjoyed the roast chicken which we had for Iftaar, especially my son who consumed almost half the chicken.  I suppose that's a good thing because at least I know likes my cooking!  Anyway, do try this recipe and see if your family likes it too.

1.5kg to 1.8 kg chicken (no giblets please!)

4 large potatoes, quartered

6 small Bombay onions, halved

2 large carrots, cut approximately the same size as the two vegetables above

half a lemon, cut into four
1 head garlic, left unpeeled

50g butter

1 tbs dried Italian herbs

salt and pepper to taste.

Clean and prepare the chicken.  Mix the butter with the herbs and rub all over the chicken including under the breast skin for flavouring.  Rub the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper then stuff two of the onions into the cavity.  Place the chicken into a casserole dish.  Arrange the vegetables all around the chicken and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper.  Cover the chicken with foil and roast in a 200C oven for one hour.  After that remove the foil and continue to roast for another half an hour at 180C until the skin turns golden.  Don't forget to squeeze the roasted garlic out of it's skin, mash it and mix it into the chicken juice to make the sauce!

Alternatively, for the potatoes, you can do like I did.  I actually boiled the quartered potatoes separately because my dish was too small.  When the potatoes are tender, heat some butter in a pan and fry the potatoes until golden brown and crispy (my children couldn't have enough of the fried potatoes!)