You don’t need to save roasting a chicken for Sunday. We love this recipe midweek. The chicken is so juicy and flavoursome that we serve it with some green veg or in the summer, just with salad.
If you are only cooking for 2, I would still recommend cooking the whole bird and have leftovers, alternatively you can cook two leg and thigh joints and halve the marinade quantities
1.3 kg whole chicken
For the marinade
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 lemons, juiced
1 small pack parsley, leaves picked and stalks discarded
4 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fenugreek, ground
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper


Prepare the marinade. Put all the marinade ingredients in a mini processor and whizz to a paste.
Place the chicken a dish and working from the neck end of the bird, very carefully pull the skin up and away using your finger from the breast meat. Spoon some marinade into that pocket. Use the rest of the marinade to rub all over the bird and some in the cavity. Leave to marinate at room temperature for 2 hours
Preheat the oven to 220c fan. Place a wire rack inside a roasting tin reserving any marinade left in the chicken dish. Put the bird breast side down and roast for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 190c fan. Turn the bird back to breast side up, add more marinade if you have it and return to the oven and roast for a further 40 minutes. Test that juices run clear, you may need longer for a larger bird.
Leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Serve with steamed veg or a salad
- 1.3 kg chicken
Marinade
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 lemons juiced
- 1 small pack parsley leaves removed
- 4 tbsp dijon mustard
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground fenugreek
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the marinade. Put all the marinade ingredients in a mini processor and whizz to a paste.
- Place the chicken a dish and working from the neck end of the bird, very carefully pull the skin up and away using your finger from the breast meat. Spoon some marinade into that pocket. Use the rest of the marinade to rub all over the bird and some in the cavity. Leave to marinate at room temperature for 2 hours
- Preheat the oven to 220c fan. Place a wire rack inside a roasting tin reserving any marinade left in the chicken dish. Put the bird breast side down and roast for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 190c fan. Turn the bird back to breast side up, add more marinade if you have it and return to the oven and roast for a further 40 minutes. Test that juices run clear, you may need longer for a larger bird.
- Leave to rest for 15 minutes. Serve with steamed veg or a salad
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