My Crispy Golden Roast Chicken

You are probably thinking, "Goddamn. It was so pleasant having Bella and her darned food blog off my newsfeed and now she's bloody back". Well guys, exams are over, my body has been sufficiently deprived of all and any nutrients and I'm back on the cooking bandwagon. Last night I roasted a chicken. One of the simplest pleasures in life.

Start off by pre-heating your oven to around 190c.

Pull away the skin from the chicken meat and then pat it dry with a paper towel. This is ideal for crispy, golden skin.

Get your butter and place little knobs of it under the skin on the breasts and thighs. Then push down on the skin to try and smoosh it out. As you can see below... my smooshing did not come to much...

Pierce holes in the meat with a knife and shove in little sprigs of rosemary.

Then get a garlic clove and chop into thin slices (about 2mm thick) and shove in the little pockets with the rosemary.

Sprinkle generously with salt.

Take apart the rest of the head of garlic and place the cloves in your baking tray. Place the chicken above the cloves.

Lightly squeeze half a lemon into the chicken and place it inside.

Shove in the oven for around 1h30 and let the comforting smell of roasting butter and meat fill the house.

When the chicken has finished roasting, you have to let it sit for about 10 minutes. I used this time to make a really simple gravy. Tilt the roasting pan to the side and the clear fat and dark brown juices should separate. Siphon off the fat with a spoon. To the juices add a tablespoon and a half of plain flour, a generous sprinkling of salt and two mugs worth of water. I also like to add red wine to give the gravy depth. Cook this for about 10 minutes on a medium heat (don't let it boil!) and add more flour or water depending on how thick you would like it.

I served this with my favourite salad ever (pancetta, avocado, blue cheese & tomato), roast veg and potatoes and some bread for gravy dipping!

SERVES 4

Ingredients:

Chicken

• 1 chicken
• 30g butter
• 1 lemon
• 1 head of garlic
• A sprig of rosemary
• Salt, a sprinkling

Gravy

• 1.5 tbsp plain flour
• 3/4 glass red wine
• 2 mugs of water
• Salt, a sprinkling