Garlic & Thyme Butter Roast Chicken with Pan Sauce
Donal's Notes
Make sure you have floury potatoes, this will help with getting lots of those crispy edges everyone loves in a good roast potato.
For the gravy:
For the potatoes:
For the carrots and peas:
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180c. Peel and quarter the floury potatoes.
Put the potatoes in a pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain then return to the pan over a low heat and toss to fluff up and dry the spuds.
Peel the garlic cloves.
Add the garlic, thyme sprigs and a generous pinch of sea salt to a large pestle and mortar. Bash to a smooth paste before adding the room-temperature butter and gently mash to combine.
Take your 1.6kg free range chicken and ease the skin away from the flesh using your fingers. Push most of the butter under the skin and spread the rest on top to coat.
Tip the par boiled potatoes into a large roasting tin and drizzle with the 5 tbsp rapeseed oil and toss together with plenty of salt and pepper. Put in the bottom half of the oven and put the chicken above. Toss the potatoes every so often as they cook.
Roast the chicken for approximately 50 minutes to an hour until fully cooked, golden and the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part of the thigh. Remove from the oven onto a warm plate to rest and turn up the oven temperature to 220C/fan 200 and roast the potatoes for a further 15 minutes. Whilst the chicken and spuds cook, prep the carrots by peeling and cutting into 2cm diagonal slices. Chop a small handful of parsley.
Add the carrots, 25g butter, the water and the sugar to a heavy based pan along with seasoning.
Add the remaining 25g butter, the defrosted peas and and parsley, toss together until the peas are warm.
Whilst the chicken rests, make the gravy. Squeeze the juice from the onions and remove. Tip the pan so the juices run to one end and put the plain flour in one of the top corners, then gradually whisk in the juices a little at a time until smooth. Put over a medium heat and bubble for 2-3 minutes to cook the flour.
Then add the white wine and bubble for a minute more. Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Season to taste and simmer until slightly thickened.
