Chicken · The one everyone should master
The Proper Roast Chicken with Lemon and Thyme Butter
A properly roasted chicken is the best argument there is for buying a better bird. A slow-grown, free-range chicken has real muscle and real flavour; all it asks of you is butter under the skin, a hot start, and patience while it rests. Master this and you've mastered Sunday.
Method
Take the chicken out of the fridge an hour before cooking. Beat the butter with the zest of the lemon, the leaves from half the thyme, the garlic and plenty of seasoning.
Loosen the skin over the breasts with your fingers and work most of the butter underneath, smoothing it out over the meat. Rub the rest over the legs. Halve the zested lemon and push it into the cavity with the remaining thyme.
Sit the bird on the sliced onion in a roasting tray. Roast at 220°C for 20 minutes until the skin starts to colour, then reduce to 180°C for a further 50–60 minutes, until the juices run clear at the thigh.
Rest the chicken breast-side down for 20 minutes; the juices flow back into the breast meat as it sits.
Set the tray over the hob, add the wine and scrape up the sticky bits, then add the stock and reduce to a light gravy. Carve and serve with every last drop from the tray.
Ben's Tip
Rest it upside down. Twenty minutes breast-down on the board lets gravity pull the juices back into the leanest meat; it's the single biggest upgrade to your roast chicken.
To Drink
Roast chicken flatters almost anything, but a white Burgundy, or any good Chardonnay with a touch of oak, is the classic for a reason.
Made with the best meat money can buy
Build a box of native-breed British meat, raised the right way, and have it delivered to your door.
Build Your Box →More to cook
