Zesty Roast Chicken Recipe

How to make it

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• Get the chicken ready for roasting by cleaning and drying cavity.
• Mix together the butter, zest of one lemon, handful of rosemary and about 4 large cloves chopped garlic. Carefully rub 3/4 of the mixture under the skin of the chicken. Reserve the rest for the outside.
• Cut the unzested lemon into quarters. Skin about 6-8 gloves of garlic. Grab a couple of sprigs of rosemary and stuff it all into the chicken cavity. Truss the chook and put it in your roasting pot with a bit of oil on the base.
• Juice the zested lemon and pour over the chicken. Season skin with salt and pepper and then rub in the remaining butter mixture. Place chook into oven (about 200 degrees).
• Chop eggplant into nice even rounds, and salt liberally and leave in strainer till needed. Pat dry before cooking.
• Peel and chop potatoes for roasting. Skin the onions (if you only have large onions chop them to the same size as the potatoes for even cooking) and place in a bowl with chopped rosemary, salt and pepper, and a bit of olive oil. Mix to coat and add to pan after about 40 minutes cooking. (*My chook took 2 hours to cook - you want to have the potatoes and onions on for at least an hour with the roast)
• Remove the loose skin from a head of garlic and break up the cloves. Add to the pan when adding the potatoes.
• Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and keep. The mushrooms need about 30 minutes in the roasting pan, so add when 30 minutes cooking time remains.
• When you put the mushrooms in, begin cooking the eggplant and asparagus. This can be done on a BBQ, grill or pan - however you like to cook it, but I like the smokey contrast of flavors.
• Remove chicken and veggies from the roasting pan. Allow chicken to rest before carving. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce.
• Chop mushroom stalks roughly. Place roasting pan on a medium heat and add the stalks to the roast juices. Add a dash of wine and begin to reduce to make a nice light jus to pour over chicken and veggies. I usually squeeze about 5 roasted garlic cloves in the juice and mix in to provide extra body.