This is the easiest meal you will ever cook and your dining companions will think you slaved over a hot stove all evening. The utter beauty of this dish is that the oven does all the work. You just take care of the timing.
Ingredients:
- 1 Whole chicken
- 1 Lemon
- Olive oil
- 1 Head of garlic cut in half - widthways
- A few sprigs of thyme
- 4 Bay leaves
- Sea Salt and freshly cracked pepper
Sides:
- 2 Sweet Potatoes and a pat of butter
- Herb salad
- 1 English cuke
- Handful of chopped red onion
- Olive oil and lemon
- Slight splash of balsamic vinegar
- Salt and Pepper
Put your chicken in a baking dish and pat it down with a paper towel. Pour over some olive oil and rub it into the skin. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze it over the chicken and then season your bird with salt and pepper. Into the bird's cavity put the squeezed half of the lemon, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and add one last generous pour of olive oil and a 1/4 cup of chicken stock to the pan. Place in a 425F oven and cook for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 365F and cook for 15 minutes per pound and then add an extra 10 minutes for good measure. Remove the bird from the oven and place on a platter to rest before carving. Pour the jus into a gravy boat and reserve a little to use on your sweet potatoes.
Your sides should be anything your heart desires. Tonight it was mashed sweet potatoes and an herb salad.
Peel, dice and parboil your large sweet potatoes. In the same baking dish you cooked your bird in, place a layer of this coral starch. Generously salt, drizzle with olive oil and pour a small amount of the chicken jus over it. Cover with foil and place in a 365F oven until they are soft enough to mash - about 45 minutes. It is not your goal to brown and crisp them, the goal is to slow roast them on a lower temperature. The foil tent will trap the steam, allowing all the flavors to infuse which will yield an extremely tasty side dish.
Mash the potatoes with butter, coarse salt and a little bit of nutmeg if you have it on hand.
Prepare your salad and dress with a clean vinaigrette consisting of olive oil, juice of the other half of the lemon and a very light drizzle of balsamic. Add salt and pepper, assemble your plate together and dig in!
