Roast chicken with basil and lemon salsa and garlic potatoes recipe
Give your next roast dinner a zesty, Mediterranean makeover with lemon, garlic and basil. Roasting the chicken and lemons together ensures wonderfully fragrant meat, while the sweet, roasted garlic is perfect for flavouring the crisp, golden potatoes and adding to the fresh basil salsa.
See method- Serves 6
- 10 mins to prepare and 1 hour 30 mins to cook
- 597 calories / serving
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
Ingredients
- 1.8kg whole chicken
- 4 lemons, 1 quartered, 2 halved, 1 pared and juiced
- 4 tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp
- 1kg Maris Piper potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
- 2 large garlic bulbs, 1 left whole, 1 cloves separated and unpeeled
- 20g fresh basil leaves
- steamed greens, to serve
Each serving contains
- Energy
- 2495kJ 597.0kcal
- Fat
- 34g
- Saturates
- 8g
- Salt
- 1.1g
- Sugars
- 2g
of the Reference intake
Carbohydrate 31.7gProtein 43.4gFibre 3.0g
Method
- Preheat the oven to gas 6, 200°C, fan 180°C. Put the chicken in a roasting tin and stuff the lemon quarters into the cavity. Rub 1 tbsp of the oil over the skin and season well. Add the lemon halves to the tin and roast for 30 mins.
- Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a separate roasting tin with the pared lemon rind, garlic cloves and 2 tbsp oil. Season and toss together. Rub the 1 tsp oil over the whole bulb of garlic and add to the tin.
- After 30 mins, transfer the potatoes to the oven and cook (alongside the chicken) for 35 mins until the garlic bulb is soft; remove the bulb and set aside. Turn both roasting tins and continue cooking for a further 30 mins until the potatoes are golden and tender, the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear from the thickest part of the thigh. Remove both tins from the oven, cover the chicken with foil and set aside to rest for 10 mins.
- Meanwhile, make the salsa. Using a pestle and mortar, bash the basil leaves with a little salt to form a coarse paste. Squeeze out the soft garlic from the bulb and bash this into the paste. Add the lemon juice and the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil; mix together.
- Pour the chicken juices into a jug, leave to settle, then skim off and discard the fat. Carve the meat and serve with the potatoes, garlic cloves, salsa and steamed greens.
- Tip: Roasting lemon gives a deeper, less acidic flavour as the natural sugars caramelise. This recipe is dairy-free and gluten-free.
- See more Chicken recipes
- For top tips on protecting you and your family when preparing raw meat and poultry, visit Food Safety in the Home.
