Simple baked chicken and vegetables

Cooking a roast chicken is incredibly simple to do and what you can do with the leftovers will really surprise you. A $10 chicken can be made into at least 3 meals and a flavoursome stock to freeze.

Nutrition Note: Home roasting your own chicken keeps added salt to a minimum without sacrificing on flavour, often is lower in fat and poses a much lower food safety risk to your family.

Note: Allow chicken to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving.

Tip: reserve the leftover meat for other great chicken meals and the carcass to make a delicious stock.

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Ingredients

• 1.5kg whole, free-range chicken     
• 1 lemon, quartered
• optional fresh herbs: tarragon, thyme, parsley
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 4 whole cloves garlic
• 4 large roasting potatoes, peeled, quartered
• ½ butternut pumpkin, seeds removed, chopped
• 1 cup frozen peas
• Tip: to cook the chicken use a roasting pan with a wire rack to ensure the best possible result.

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 220°C. To prepare the chicken, rinse thoroughly with water –including in the cavity and pat-dry with paper towel. Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the chicken using your hands to rub it into the skin. Place the lemon pieces into the chicken cavity together with any optional herbs and tie legs together with ovenproof string. Finally, brush the chicken with 2 tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper. -

Step 2

Place the chicken on the wire rack (breast side up) and roast for 45mintues to 1 hour or until the juices run clear. -

Step 3

Once the chicken is in the oven you can prepare your vegetables for roasting. Place the whole garlic, potatoes and pumpkin in a roasting tray. Pour over the remaining oil and toss to coat. Roast in the oven for around 45 minutes, turning occasionally or until golden brown and cooked to your liking.
Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Pour in the peas and cook for 1 minute, strain. -

Step 4

Serve the chicken with roast vegetables and peas or a side salad. -