Whole Roast Chicken with Sage and Smoked Pancetta Butter
Serves: 6
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 150 minutes
Whole British farmed chicken. Mild flavoured bird, perfect for roasting and sharing.
Ingredients
- 1 large chicken
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 pack of smoked pancetta, cut into small cubes
- 2 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
- 5 sprigs of rosemary, leaves removed and chopped
- 120g butter salt and pepper
Method
- Pre heat the oven at 220C/425F/gas 7
- Using your fingers, part the skin from the chicken. You don't want to rip the skin, so push down gently on the meat. This allows a pocket over the whole chicken for the butter to sit.
- In a bowl add the butter, pancetta, garlic, rosemary, and lemon zest, along with plenty of pepper and a pinch of salt.
- Stuff this butter mixture under the skin you've just pulled away from the flesh. 5) Take the peeled lemon and place it in the cavity of the chicken, and score the thigh meat to allow the heat in.
- Put the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes, to allow the skin to crisp and the butter to melt. After 20 minutes baste with the butter that has melted away from the bird, and put back in the oven for a further 45 minutes.
- Cover with tin foil, and rest for 25 minutes.
- Serve with all the trimmings, or make delicious roast potatoes by cooking them in the same pan as the chicken with the flavoured butter.
