There is something special about roasting a whole bird, and it ends up being the kind of meal that you have to sit and slow down for. While a turkey can be intimidating, chickens are pretty hard to mess up (just make sure there is no pink left). Both the dark meat and white meat are full of protein and highly nutritious but the skin’s saturated fat outweighs its benefits so I generally recommend avoiding large amounts of it. Fun fact- chicken have a higher white to dark meat ratio because they have mostly slow twitch muscle fibers, other birds that fly and exert themselves more, like ducks, generally have more dark meat because they have more fast twitch muscle fibers.
Rustic Roast Chicken
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 4
INGREDIENTS:
- Vegetable base
- 3 cups white mushrooms, cut into quarters
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, cut in half
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 yam, chopped
- Chicken
- 1 3lb chicken with organs removed
- 1 tablespoon softened butter
- ½ lemon sliced
- Sea salt and pepper
- Stuffing
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced in half
- 1 thin stalk of lemongrass, chopped
- 1 shallot, sliced
- ½ lemon sliced
- ¼ cup fresh thyme (around ½ of a small bunch)
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 425º. Put the stuffing into the chicken and secure with meat metal skewers. Rub the whole outside of the chicken with the butter then sprinkle with the salt and pepper and place in a large baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes to crisp up the skin. Remove from oven, add the vegetables into the base of the dish and add the lemon slices onto the top of the chicken. Place back in the oven, reduce the temperature to 350° and continue to bake for 70 minutes, stirring the vegetables every 20-30 minutes or so, ensuring that they roast evenly. Once fully cooked, discard the stuffing and serve.