Chicken with Lemon and Potatoes (6)
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Get out the biggest roasting tin you have, and pour all but a teaspoon or so of the oil into it. Throw in the chopped rosemary needles and the garlic cloves.
  2. Trim the leeks and cut each in half lengthways, then slice into half-moons and drop these leek curls into the tin, too. Cut the potatoes into 1.5cm slices, then cut each slice into 4, or just halve them if the potatoes are small, and add these to the tin.
  3. Quarter the lemons, then cut each quarter in half, take out as many pips as you can without exerting yourself unduly and toss the lemon quarters into the pan. Now mix together well, and then make a space in the middle of the tin for the chicken to sit in.
  4. Untruss the chicken, place it in the reserved parking space, pour the tiny bit of remaining oil on top of it and sprinkle sea salt flakes on top of the chicken only.
  5. Place in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes, and if the juices of the chicken run clear when you push the tip of a knife into the joint where the thigh meets the body, remove the chicken to a board to sit, letting the juices from its cavity spill back in to the tin as you do so.
  6. Put the potato mixture back in the oven for 10 minutes until soft and golden. If the chicken needs longer, keep everything in the oven until the chicken’s cooked.
  7. When it’s ready, and the chicken has rested, carve it or cut into joints as wished – I find the chicken goes further if carved.
  8. If you don’t want to serve the lemony, garlicky potatoes from their tin transfer them to a serving plate or dish and sprinkle with ½ a teaspoon or so of finely chopped rosemary needles and sea salt flakes to taste.