My Famous Roast Chicken

Everyone has a dish that people recognise you for, and for me its my roast chicken. Simple as it may seem, by cooking your chicken according to this recipe, I guarantee a moist flavorsome chicken every time.
Once you master the art of cooking a moist chicken, then you can experiment with other flavours, such as sticky Thai, or smoky paprika, or bacon and brandy......the list goes on!

Ingredients

• 1 good quality chicken, corn fed or organic is best. The supermarket ones tend to be tasteless and full of water.
• 1 lemon
• sea salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• good bunch of thyme
• 4 cloves of garlic 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Place the chicken in a roasting tin, making sure it has plenty of room
3. Grate the rind of the lemon over the chicken and grate 2 cloves of garlic over also
4. Place the lemon into the cavity of the chicken along with half of the thyme
5. With the rest of the thyme, sprinkle the leaves over the skin of the chicken
6. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper and pour over the olive oil.
7. Massage all the flavours into the meat and leave to infuse for 30 mins
8. Put 2 cloves of garlic into the cavity of the chicken.
9. Place the chicken into the oven and cook for 45 mins
10. After 45 mins, turn the chicken upside down and cook for another 30 mins
11. Take the chicken out of oven again, and place it right side up and return to the oven for another 20-25 mins.
12. To test that the chicken is fully cooked, the legs should easily twist free from the rest of the chicken, or alternatively you can put a skewer through the meatiest part of the chicken and see if the juices run clear.
13. I'd leave the chicken rest under tin foil for 10 mins, after taking it out of the oven before carving.
14. Beware though this recipe is seriously addictive, and I have started to cook one every Sunday evening and  having enough for salads, sandwiches and Monday night dinners then.......making this seriously economical!

This can be a great low fat dinner with a big salad provided you can resist the urge to splurge on the crispy skin, every time I swear I'll leave the skin alone, and fail miserably 9 times out of 10. Its super yummy!