By Jo Keohane
Flavored with lemon, garlic and thyme, this delicious Christmas roast chicken recipe makes a wonderful Christmas dinner. This is one of the best ways to roast chicken, as the hot oven creates the perfect combination of juicy meat and crispy skin.
Why You’ll Love This Roast Chicken Recipe
- • Chicken is the ideal roast for smaller gatherings. It is easier to prepare and cooks much quicker than a large turkey.
- • Everyone loves a good roast chicken—when roast chicken is served on the Christmas table, there are rarely any leftovers!
- • The perfect roast chicken also works for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or any Sunday lunch when you want something a little special.
- • Any leftover meat can be used the next day in sandwiches, salads, stir-fries, tacos, or in a simple quesadilla. Leftover bones can also be used for stock or soup.
Christmas Chicken Roast Ingredients
- • Whole Chicken: Use a good-quality organic chicken whenever possible. This helps ensure that the meat is high quality, with no hidden ingredients.
- • Butter: You can use either salted or unsalted butter in this recipe. If using salted butter, be careful when adding any extra salt to season the chicken.
- • Aromatics: Use a combination of lemon, thyme, and garlic, as these flavors pair beautifully together. You could also use rosemary, bay, or sage.
Simple Steps on How to Make Festive Season Chicken for Christmas
- • Pre-heat the oven and prepare a whole chicken by removing any giblets, washing and drying thoroughly. Place the chicken on a baking sheet lined with foil.
- • Flavour the chicken by rubbing the halved garlic bulb all over the skin of the chicken.
- Season the bird generously with salt and pepper. Smear butter
all over the top of the chicken breast, thighs and leg. - • Stuff the garlic cloves into the chicken cavity along with the
lemon wedges and thyme. - • If you wish to, tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken so they don’t catch in the oven.
- • Roast in the pre-heated oven for around 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and the meat is cooked through.
- • Allow to rest covered in foil for 15 minutes. Serve sliced with
the roasted garlic and lemons, if you like.
Secrets For The Best Roast Chicken
- • Take the chicken out of the fridge an hour before cooking to allow it to be at room temperature. This stops the outside cooking much faster than the inside.
- • Don’t forget to season well inside and outside with salt and pepper. This really does make all the difference to the final flavor. Use kosher salt or sea salt. If you only have table salt, use slightly less since it’s processed.
- • Take the butter out of the refrigerator to soften for 30 minutes before cooking the chicken; this will make it easier to spread.
- • Don’t be afraid of a hot oven, as it ensures the meat cooks quickly and doesn’t dry out. It also gives that all-important crispy skin.
Ingredients
- • 5lb whole chicken
- • 1 bulb garlic - unpeeled, cut in 2 through the middle
- • 1 lemon - cut into wedges
- • 10 sprigs thyme
- • Sea salt and black pepper
- • 2oz butter - at room temperature so it’s spreadable.
Cooking Instructions
- • Pre-heat oven to 450F/225ºC
- • Remove the chicken giblets from the chicken. Wash the bird and pat dry.
- • Line a medium sized baking tray with foil and lay the chicken on top.
- • Rub the halved garlic bulb all over the skin of the chicken to flavor it well.
- • Season the bird generously with salt and pepper. Don’t forget to season underneath.
- • Smear butter all over the top of the chicken breast, thighs and legs.
- • Stuff the chicken cavity with the lemon wedges, garlic halves and the thyme. Tie the legs together with kitchen string if you want to (this isn’t essential but looks neat and helps the bird cook evenly). Tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken so they don’t catch in the oven.
- • Roast in oven for around 90 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and the meat is cooked through.
- • Allow to rest covered in foil for 15 minutes. Carve and serve!
Frequently Asked Questions
- 1. How much chicken should I serve per person? A large 5lb chicken which will serve a family of 6. Allow 4-5 ounces of cooked chicken per person.
- 2. Do you cook the whole chicken covered or uncovered? Cook the roast chicken uncovered - that’s how you get that coveted crispy skin! If it looks like the chicken is beginning to brown too much, then you can loosely tent it with aluminum foil until it has finished cooking.
- 3. Should you truss a chicken to roast it? Trussing a chicken is when you tie it together with string, ensuring the wings and legs remain close to the body of the bird. Trussing a chicken keeps it together, allowing it to brown evenly and retain moisture in the bird. In particular, the chicken breast can dry out if the bird is left loose during the roasting process.
- 4. How do you know when roast chicken is cooked? To find out if roast chicken is properly cooked without a thermometer, you can cut into it. If the juices run clear, then the chicken is fully cooked. If the juices are red or have a pinkish color, your chicken may need to be cooked a bit longer. Alternatively for a failsafe method, use a meat thermometer. Place it into the thickest part of the chicken. The meat is cooked when the internal temperature reaches 165F or 75°C
