There is nothing quite as delicious as a fresh farm chicken roasted with garlic and garden herbs. Serve with a big green salad in summer or roasted vegetables in winter.
For this blog, we bought a chicken straight from La Ferme des Ânes, Normandy and the herbs are from the garden of our host.
Ingredients
Ingredients- A whole-farm chicken – cleaned
- 4-5 cloves of garlic sliced
- a generous selection of herb – sage, thyme, rosemary
- olive oil
- 1 red onion – sliced
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200c/gas 6.
- Weigh the chicken. Cut the wingtips from the chicken to make a trivet, as this will stop the chicken burning.
- Peel and slice the red onion.
- Pour 2 tbsp of olive oil into the bottom of a roasting pan. Place in half the onion and the wingtips. Lay the chicken on top.
- Stuff the remaining onion into the main cavity of the bird along with 3/4 of the herbs. Gently lift the chicken skin and push the garlic slices underneath.
- Place the chicken liver, neck and heart around the outside of the bird. Cover with the remainder of the herb and pour over 4 tablespoons of olive oil and a cup of water.
- Season with freshly ground black pepper
- Cover with foil and place in the centre of the over.
- Cook for 15 minutes at 200c, then turn the oven down to 180c/gas 4 and roast the chicken for 40 minutes per kilo or until cooked through (when a knife or skewer is pushed into the flesh the juice must run clear with no trace of blood). Remove from the oven, keep the foil over the chicken, cover with a thick towel and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
- To serve, lift the chicken carefully out of the roasting tin and onto a large serving dish. Garnish with herbs.
- Pour the chicken juices into a jug and serve with the chicken. You can thicken it with a little cornflour, but we just love it without.
