This is what a real, lemon and herbs, juicy, tasty roast chicken looks like.
Simple as it is, I coud not help but taking some photos of this beauty as it went out from the oven and share them here. I had not planned a blog post at all. I was just in the middle of a lazy Sunday roast at home, but could not stop myself from taking the camera and improvise a shooting before we ate it with a large, green leafy salad.
Real food is made of this. Simple, unexpected pleasures popping up from the ordinary. The sharp citric juice notes of a couple of lemons and the delicate aroma of rosemary and thyme did wonders for the otherwise bland meat of a whole chicken.
I know, you can hardly call this a recipe. But it was so, so good I just wanted to have it here. And share the joy of enjoying this little wonder in the middle of a cold winter day. Easy, honest homemade food full of flavour with just a few ingredients. How could anyone resist this?
Lemon and herbs roast chicken
Ingredients (4-5 people)
1 whole chicken (1.5 kg)
2 medium lemons
2-3 sprigs rosemary
1 sprig thyme
Olive Oil
Salt
Preheat oven at 190º/170º Fan
Put a teaspoon of oil in a roasting pan and spread it to coat the pan. Put the chick on top of it, with the breast side touching the base of the pan. Add some olive oil on top of the chicken (a couple of tablespoons), salt, and the sprigs of rosemary and thyme and put in the oven for 45 minutes.
Take the pan out of the oven, turn the chicken arround so that the breast are now upwards, coat with the juices from the pan, and add the juice of 1 lemon. Cut the other lemon in quarters lenghtwise and add to the pan. I usually put one in the cavity, but this is optional. Add a bit of salt, and put again into the oven for another 45 minutes. Check from time to time and in case the chicken is getting too brown, cover with foil.
Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving and serving with a green salad.
(For cooking time, add 20 minutes per 500 grams, plus 20 more minutes)
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