This is one of my all-time favourites. It is very easy to make, and casual dining at its best. All you really need is a good chicken. My top favourite chicken breed is poulet de Bresse. It is a ‘controlled’ French breed with superb flavour due to its diet and upbringing. But it is not easily available in the UK and rather expensive. My second favourite is Label Rouge chicken, which has been reared using traditional, free-range methods approved by the French public authorities. There are also outstanding, slow growing English breeds (70-80 days) which are fed on cereal-based diets with no antibiotics, additives or hormones. They have juicy and flavourful meat with incredible texture. I am not suggesting that you will need to use a “posh” chicken for this dish, but always use a high quality, traditionally farmed chicken.
This dish is all about flavour. Do not expect super crispy skin, but you will be rewarded with really delicious and tender meat. There is no need to make the old-fashioned gravy. Without much effort, you will have the most amazing sauce which is an amalgamation of chicken juice, butter, lemon juice, wine and garlic. I suggest using thyme in this recipe, but alternatively, rosemary will also work well.
Ingredients
- A high quality organic or free range chicken (about 1.5kg)
- 75g soft butter at room temperature
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- Juice of 1/2 lemon, save the squeezed lemon half
- A few sprigs of thyme, plus 1 tsp of thyme leaves
- 150ml white wine
Instructions
- Take your chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. This will allow the chicken to reach room temperature before roasting. Smear butter all over the chicken with your hands. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place it in a roasting tin, and put the garlic, sprigs of thyme and the squeezed lemon half into the cavity.
- Roast the chicken in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20 mins. Then baste the chicken with the fat in the tin. Pour the lemon juice and wine into the tin. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C and roast for another 30 mins. If you have a meat thermometer, insert it into the thickest part of the thigh but not touching the bone. The internal temperature of the meat should reach about 70°C. (The temperature will continue to rise to about 75°C during resting.)
- Remove the chicken from the tin. Discard the herbs and lemon half in the cavity, but keep the garlic. Pound the garlic into a paste in a mortar and pestle, with a little pan juice from the roasting tin.
- Let the chicken rest for 15-30 mins, allowing the meat to relax gently and retaining the juice in the meat.
- You will end up with a nutty brown, richly flavoured sauce in the roasting tin. While the chicken is resting, return the garlic paste to the roasting tin, and scrape off any residues from the tin. Reheat the sauce in the tin briefly to allow the sauce to be infused with the garlic.
- Carve up the chicken coarsely, and cut the legs and wings into pieces. Transfer the chicken pieces to a deep plate. Pour the sauce over the chicken, and mix the pieces with the sauce. Sprinkle the thyme leaves over the top.
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