Roast Chicken & Vegetables

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.6 kg
• 800 g potatoes, in big chunks
• 3 carrots, in big chunks
• 1 brown onion, quartered
• 1 lemon, halved
• Half a bulb of garlic
• 40 g butter, softened
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• A few sprigs of rosemary
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C. Take the chicken out of the fridge while it heats — a fridge-cold bird cooks unevenly.
2. Rub the butter over the breast and legs and salt it generously all over, including inside. Lemon halves and a couple of rosemary sprigs go in the cavity.
3. Toss the potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic with the oil in a big dish and sit the chicken on top, breast up.
4. Roast for about 1 hour 20 minutes. It's done when the juice from the thigh runs clear rather than pink — start checking at an hour.
5. Rest it on a board for 15 minutes before carving, and give the vegetables that time back in the oven to crisp up. Skipping the rest is the most common way to end up with dry chicken.