The perfect roast chicken

Name: The perfect roast chicken
Ingredients: For 3 to 4 people, a 1.5 kg (3 lb) chicken, 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, ½ lemon, salt and pepper.; For 3 to 4 people, a 1.5 kg (3 lb) chicken, 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, ½ lemon, salt and pepper.; For 3 to 4 people, a 1.5 kg (3 lb) chicken, 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, ½ lemon, salt and pepper.; For 3 to 4 people, a 1.5 kg (3 lb) chicken, 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, ½ lemon, salt and pepper.; For 3 to 4 people, a 1.5 kg (3 lb) chicken, 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, ½ lemon, salt and pepper.

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Modern Classics

By Frances Bissell

Published 2000

About

Choose the most expensive bird you can afford; an organic chicken will give a thick crisp skin, flavourful meat which does not fall apart when you bite into it, and very good stock when you boil up the carcass.

Ingredients

You need

For 3 to 4 people, a 1.5 kg (3 lb) chicken, 1 bay leaf,

Main course

Method

Remove any excess fat from the body cavity. Spike the bay leaf with the cloves, and tuck this into the cavity. Rub the bird all over with the cut lemon, squeezing the juice over the bird, and then put the half-lemon inside. Lightly season inside and out, and place the chicken on its side on a rack in the roasting tin.

Roast on its side f