Easy roast chicken

Ingredients

1 x 1.5kg chicken
1 lemon, juiced and rind finely grated
2 garlic cloves
40g butter, softened
salt to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C or 180°C fan-forced. Set aside a baking tray.

Pound the garlic, butter, lemon rind and salt together in a mortar and pestle or just using the back of a spoon in a bowl. Smear this all over the bird and pop some in the cavity.

Squeeze over the lemon juice and place one half of the lemon in the cavity too.

Place into the baking tray and into the oven to cook for one hour. Remove from oven and let rest, under a tent of foil for 15 minutes.

Notes:

Here are some of my favourite ways to serve my roast chicken:
Shredded over a base of watercress and loads of freshly chopped herbs (parsley, mint, tarragon, chervil etc.) then served with a good mayonnaise on the side and a few sourdough rolls to mop it all up
With a classic gravy and mashed potatoes With a minted natural yoghurt dressing and a salad of orzo, pine nuts and currants
Resting the chicken will allow the flesh to re-absorb all the juices and gives you a nice moist chicken so don’t skip this step.
This recipe was created by Sophie Hansen for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.