Roast Chicken, an English Cottage and Bluebell Woods

Oh, England was beautiful, the countryside was in full flush of spring, baby bunnies, bird song, primroses, blossoms, bluebell woods, lambs and foals. I wanted to bottle it all up and bring it home.  My mum and I had a lovely time. 

I'm happy to say I unearthed many a culinary treasure while I was there which I'm looking forward to sharing.  One such find was my Grandmother's cookbook (first edition 1927) which holds some wonderful recipes that I can't wait to try out. 


Here's a picture of a little cottage I thought I might like to live in!

Isn't it pretty!  Just a quarter of it would do us fine.  Before we get down to roast chicken, I can't resist showing you the bluebell wood, sadly the sun wasn't actually shining, but this is England after all.

Yesterday I must admit I was having a little trouble remembering which side of the road to drive on and conked out with exhaustion by early evening.  I just about managed to crank out the old faithful roast chicken.  It's so dependable, even on auto pilot this makes me proud.

All you need is:

• 1 good sized chicken (about 4lbs)
• 3-4 lemons (zested and cut up into quarters)
• 4-5 shallots or 3-4 medium onions (peeled and cut into quarters)
• 1 bulb of garlic (unpeeled but with the top cut off)
• a few gulgs of olive oil
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• fresh herbs roughly chopped (rosemary, parsley, thyme or sage would be lovely)

Preheat the oven to 425F

Place all ingredients in a large roasting pan.  Rub the olive oil over the chicken, the top of the garlic bulb and shallots or onions if using.
Pour in the white wine and place in the oven.  Close the door and forget about it for  45 minutes.

Then take the pan out of the oven and baste making sure all the lemons and onions are covered in the juices.  Put back in the oven for another 1/2 hour or until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear.

Take out of the oven, transfer the chicken, shallots and lemons to a warm serving plate, skim off the fat from the juices and and pour remaining juices over the chicken.  Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.  Carve and enjoy with crusty bread to sop up the juices and a salad.