Ingredients
1 whole chicken, lemon, garlic, fresh rosemary, extra virgin olive oil, course seat salt and pepper
Method
Preheat oven to highest for 10 mins. On a baking sheet, sprinkle the squeeze of half a lemon, salt and pepper (S&P). Lay the bird breast side up, squeezing the other lemon half over the skin. Stuff the bird with the leftover lemon, half the bulb of a garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Generously drizzle olive oil to coat skin, sprinkle with S&P, and bake at 200C for 50 minutes.
Top Tips
The key to a good roast chicken is a slow roast at a low temperature (200C) to keep it moist and tender and then turning the heat up to a high in the final 10 minutes to brown and crisp the skin. Stuffing the lemon into the chicken adds extra moisture. To achieve crispy skin, course sea salt should be sprinkled on top, but only after you’ve lathered the bird with lemon and oil. If obsessed with crispy skin, the bird should be cut butterfly style, incised longitudinally down the ribs (thankfully, butchers know what the butterfly is!). I like to crush a few cloves of garlic, skin on to surround the bird. With the process, the garlic becomes incredibly sweet with a hint of bitterness.
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