If you can afford it, it's always worth shelling out for a quality free-range chicken. Some of the larger free-range birds will most certainly feed four people, as I found when I recently tried the chickens from Packington Poultry. I've used jumbo garlic here which you can get from good greengrocers; it's ideal for roasting and baking as the cloves are the size of a standard head of garlic.
1 free-range chicken, preferably with its livers
6 bay leaves
2 heads of jumbo garlic or 4 heads of normal, halved
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g butter for basting
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.
Rub the chicken with the butter, season inside and out and place in a roasting tray with the garlic, then put the bay leaves in the cavity.
Roast for about 1-1¼ hours, basting regularly until the juices run clear when a skewer or knife tip is inserted into the thickest part of the thigh. When cooked, remove the chicken from the oven and leave to rest in a warm place for 15 minutes. To serve, remove the legs and cut them at the joint, remove the breasts and slice them a few times and arrange on a warmed serving dish with the bay and garlic and serve with gravy.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies