What to eat Wednesdays - Easy lemon roast chicken

This is a really easy way to roast a chicken and it yields such tender and flavoursome results. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos of this recipe, so I'll try to remember to take some next time I make it.

Ingredients

• 1 x approximately 1.6kg chicken, preferably free range or organic*
• olive oil
• unrefined sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon
• small bunch fresh herbs, eg. thyme or rosemary
• 1 onion, roughly chopped

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F.

2. Drizzle olive oil over the chicken and season with salt and pepper, rubbing it into the chicken.

3. Stab several holes in the lemon and place it inside the chicken cavity along with the fresh cut herbs.

4. Place chicken on top of the chopped onion inside a roasting tray (preferably lidded) and cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted in the fattest part of the chicken. If you're roasting tray is not lidded, baste the chicken about halfway through the cooking time.

5. When cooked, remove chicken from its roasting dish and place on a chopping board to rest for 10 minutes. Cover with the lid of the roasting tray, or tin foil. Now you can use the roasting tray and its contents to make your gravy.

6. Carve (legs first, then breasts, then pick off all the other meat) and serve.

*Buying free range and organic chickens is better for your health and the health of our world. It costs a lot more, so make the most of your chicken by using leftovers for other dinners, saving the fat to cook with and boiling up the bones to make chicken stock - a tasty and nutritious base for soups and rice dishes.

I've linked this recipe to Tuesdays at the Table.