Whether it’s just for Sunday Lunch or a midweek meal. This chicken is the juiciest and tastiest you’ll ever have. It’s even great for small families Christmas Day. Sometimes turkey can be too big and can cause a lot of waste.
For the Chicken
1 Free Range Manor Farm Chicken
2-3 clementines zested and kept whole
2 cloves of garlic mashed
4 sprigs of thyme
A good handful of sage leaves
125g of butter at room temperature
4 red onions with the skin on sliced into 4
Method
Start with the chicken first. Preheat the oven to 200oC. In a small bowl, mash the butter with one-third of the thyme leaves, the mashed garlic and the zest of the clementines. Mix everything together with some seasoning and set aside.
Use your hand to loosen the chicken skin away from the breast, then push most of the butter mix into the gap. Rub the rest of the butter all over the outside of the chicken, then stuff the cavity with the clementines, remaining thyme leaves and sage.
Pop into the oven to roast on the middle shelf for 1 hr 30 mins, basting with the buttery juices after about 40 mins, cover with tin foil of it colours too quickly. When the chicken is dark golden, crispy-skinned and the juices run clear, remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 mins. Use a pair of tongs to pull the clementines and herbs out of the cavity and into the tin. Lift the chicken up, letting any juices dribble into the tin, and transfer the chicken to a serving platter cover with tin foil and a tea towel to rest for at least another 15 mins.
Once rested drizzle with the clementines and carve.
Trust me you can go wrong with this one.