I know that some kind of roast joint is traditional for Sunday lunch, but for me it’s a slow cooked meltingly tender casserole that fills the house with such fabulous smells, or it’s a simple chicken roasted in the oven.  So today I made both.

I’ll deal with the casserole another day, having picked up a lovely free-range, organic chicken I thought that all it needed was something simple to bring out the best flavour.

Lemon and Thyme Roast Chicken

• 1 free range, organic roasting chicken (about 1.75kg)
• 2 lemons
• 6-8 sprigs of fresh thyme (2 tsp dried)
• 2 medium onions, sliced (just leave the skins on)
• handful of smoked lardons (optional)
• pepper
• 35g butter, softened

Directions

1. Preheat the over to 190 C/170 C Fan/Gas 5.
2. On a clean board take the chicken and gently use your fingers to separate the skin of the chicken from the breast.  If using dried thyme (or strip the leaves from the fresh stalks) mix this with the softened butter.  
3. Using your fingers carefully spread the herb butter mixture between the skin and the breast.  Alternatively just spread the butter and carefully push the whole thyme sprigs under the skin.
4. In a roasting tray scatter the onions in the centre to create a trivet base for your chicken to sit on (they will help add flavour to the juices that you can use to make gravy and protect the bottom of the chicken from the heat of the oven)
5. Cut the lemons into quarters and squeeze 2-3 quarters over the chicken.  Place a further 2-3 quarters into the cavity of the chicken with most of the lardons (add some extra thyme if you want).  Place the chicken on the bed of onion slices and add the remaining lemon and lardons around the chicken (I also added a few more springs of thyme).
6. Season the chicken with a very generous amount of fresh black pepper (and sea salt if you must – I don’t) and roast in the over for 45 minutes/kilo plus 20-30 minutes (so in this case about 1h 35m). Test the chicken near the end of the time by putting a skewer through the thigh.  The juices that come out should be clear with no trace of pink.
7. Once cooked, lift the chicken from the tray and set-aside covered in tin foil for about 10 minutes before carving and serving.  The juices in the tray should be strained and the fat skimmed off to make the gravy.

That’s it.  Simple, no fuss and delicious.  Do what I did and serve with a few roast potatoes and your favourite vegetables.  You can leave out the butter if you want, but it helps keep the chicken really moist.

It’s also easy to adjust the flavours, fresh tarragon is wonderful instead of the thyme or crush 3-4 cloves of garlic and mix with the butter.  Another fab version is to mix a Cajun spice rub (you can get a ready-made mix) with the butter.  Regardless of which option I make, I always make sure there are left-overs to make a wonderful chicken salad lunch.

I always used to think that roast chicken was something difficult, now its something I do without even thinking about it.