A traditional roast chicken with delicious stuffing and buttery, tender flesh is a wonderfully economical dinner and a mouth-watering French-inspired version never goes out of style. Serve it up with duck fat potatoes.
Looking for more roast chicken dinners and what to do with the leftovers?
Ingredients
Butter
Stuffing
Method
1.Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan-forced).
2.Make butter; combine garlic, parsley, lemon rind and butter in a small bowl. Spoon onto a sheet of baking paper, roll up to form a log and twist ends to seal.
3.Make stuffing; heat butter in a large frying pan over medium heat; add bacon, onion and garlic, and cook until softened. Stir in tarragon, breadcrumbs and parsley. Season to taste.
4.Remove and discard any fat from cavity of chicken. Pat cavity and skin dry with paper towel. Tuck wings under body.
5.Run fingers between skin and the breast meat. Spoon half the flavoured butter under skin; push through skin to cover breast and tops of drumsticks and thighs.
6.Fill cavity with stuffing. Season chicken all over with sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper. Tie legs together with kitchen string. Put your preferred vegetables (we recommend kipfler potatoes) into base of a large roasting dish and pour over the chicken stock.
7.Place chicken, breast-side up, on top of vegetables; cover with remaining butter. Place bay leaves and tarragon in dish. Roast for 15 minutes, then reduce oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced); roast for a further 1½ hours until chicken is cooked through, basting occasionally with pan juices. Serve.
Not suitable to freeze or microwave.
Note
