Roast Chicken with Garlic, Lemon and Thyme

Season’s Greetings!!

Roast Chicken with Garlic, Lemon, Thyme & Assorted Herbs … very yummy!

I had the perfect home-cooked dinner of roast chicken with roasted vegetables on Christmas eve! For the first time, B volunteered to cook with me and he was a great kitchen helper, opps I mean sous chef! I ‘chickened out’ (bad pun ;p) when it was time to chop the chicken neck, but I went back to the kitchen when the deed was done … good job sous chef! ;p I basically ’supervised’ the cooking so it was all very relaxed for me, and having an assistant made me felt really pro for once, hehe. We were extremely satisfied with the roast chicken and both B and me thought that it was one of the best roast chicken we ever had (so un-bashful). To my surprise, it wasn’t difficult at all, and they make great party food for all occasions and when you have friends visiting.

A view of our cosy Christmas eve dinner plate

I don’t think I can wait till next Christmas to make this, maybe I’ll make one again next week xp

The reason why we had chicken and not turkey was because there were only two of us, and this is the first time I am roasting a whole bird so chicken sounds more manageable than turkey, it being much smaller (hence easier to cook) and it’s also much cheaper as well (bought the chicken for only S$7). Also, I think turkey somehow tastes more tough and drier than chicken =p

Ingredients

- 1 whole chicken
- 1 lemon
- 15 garlic cloves, bruised
- a few sprigs of thyme
- a few sprigs of rosemary
- a few sprigs of parsley (I use the curly type)
- a few bay leaves
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- a small knob of butter
- kosher or sea salt
- black pepper
- olive oil

Directions

1. Wash chicken, remove innards and neck. Pat the chicken dry.

2. Use a grater to make lemon zest from lemon. Set aside the lemon.

3. In a bowl, mix butter, chopped parsley and lemon zest together into a paste.

4. Place chicken in a roasting pan (breast side up). For aesthetics (optional), tuck the wings under the chicken and tie the thighs together using kitchen twine or unwaxed white dental floss (I skip this step because I can’t find kitchen string or unwaxed dental floss).

Sous Chef carefully loosing the area between the skin and the flesh to insert the buttery paste – step 5

5. Carefully pull the top chicken skin (where the breast portion is – see photo above) and slowly stuff the paste made in step 3 under the chicken skin (technique from Foodwishes.com’s YouTube recipe)

6. Cut lemon in two and microwave for 40 seconds. Carefully use the tip of a small knife to prick all over the lemon. Squeeze the lemon juices into the cavity and put the whole lemon inside (technique from Jamie Oliver’s recipe).

7. Besides the lemon, stuff the cavity with thyme, garlic, rosemary and other herbs you have. If you have leftover herbs, sprinkle them around the pan near or on the chicken

8. Brush the chicken skin all over with olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper.

9. Bake chicken in preheated oven at 200C (400F) for about 40 minutes. Take the chicken out and brush the chicken with the juices that are collected in the drip pan. If there are not enough juices, use olive oil to brush chicken.

10. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, adjust baking time according to your oven. The perfect and ultimate roast chicken is cooked on the inside while its skin is crisp like peking duck =D

Sous chef chopping the parsley

Chicken before roasting

Cooking Notes:
- The key ingredients for stuffing the cavity are garlic, lemon and thyme. Feel free to add other herbs that you have in your pantry.
- Kosher or organic sea salt is preferred over normal pan salt.
- You can also cook some roasted vegetables at the same time (seasoned with salt, pepper and the leftover herbs from making the chicken). I roasted my vegetables on a separate rack with a separate dish (so that it’s not so oily). Look out for my upcoming roasted vegetables recipe!
- The roasting juices can be used to cook aromatic chicken rice! Look out for my upcoming recipe ;p

Delicious roast chicken … ultimate comfort

Another view of our cosy Christmas eve dinner plate

Close up of our sumptuous Christmas eve dinner plate: Roast chicken (check out the crispy skin) with roasted vegetables.

=== my little hamsters Christmas diary ===

I brought my aging but very loved and adorable hamster Neko Chan to our Christmas table and his supersonic nose (think remy in ratatouille) immediately sniffed out the chicken we had. I usually only give plain boiled chicken to hamsters but since it is Christmas, I made an exception and gave Neko a little bit of the chicken which he enjoyed thoroughly.

Neko is enjoying the roast chicken too!

I had the best Christmas present this year because Neko Chan is by my side. He was really sick early in the month due to a sudden respiratory illness, and we all thought he wasn’t going to make it. But he recovered miraculously after we treated him with a thyme remedy for hamsters and I am so happy. Neko was extra bouncy & playful on Christmas eve and day and that really cheered me up a lot to see him so happy.

Playful Neko chewing his cage on Christmas Eve

Playful Neko scaling up to the top of his cage (he succeeded) on Christmas Eve

I gave Neko and Nihlus (new ham on the block) each a ‘Christmas Sampler Platter’ consisting of their favourite foods as well as 5 different kinds of cheese and assorted nuts as a foodie treat for Christmas.

The hamsters’ Christmas Sampler Platter ;p

Neko chan checking out his Christmas Platter *sniff sniff*

New ham on the block Nihlus making his debut and enjoying a piece of cheese *nom*

Santa’s little helper, the adorable Nihlus BB

Happy Holidays!

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Tagged as: bay leaf, Chicken, garlic, lemon, rosemary, thyme