British & Irish · Lunch · Dinner
Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken
Roast chicken
A golden whole chicken scented with lemon, garlic, thyme and rosemary, roasted over a bed of potatoes, carrots and onions that soak up the juices. It's a light, olive-oil-based take on the classic Sunday roast.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 80 min
- Total
- 100 min
- Serves
- 6
Calories come from: Carbs 22% · Fat 50% · Protein 28%
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Ingredients
For 6 servings- 1 whole (about 1.4 kg / 3 lb)whole chicken
- 1 medium120 glemon
- 1 whole head50 ggarlic
- 6 sprigs5 gfresh thyme
- 2 sprigsfresh rosemary
- 1 tbsp14 golive oil
- 1 tsp6 gsalt
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 500 g (about 12 small)baby potatoes
- 4 medium240 gcarrots
- 2 medium300 gred onions
- 1/2 cup120 gwater
- 2 tbsp chopped8 gfresh parsley (optional)
Steps
- 1
Heat the oven to 200 °C / 400 °F.
- 2
Take the chicken out of its packaging, remove any giblets, pull away the loose fat at the cavity opening and pat it dry all over with paper towels.
- 3
Halve the potatoes, cut the carrots into thick chunks and cut the onions into wedges.
- 4
Spread the vegetables in a large roasting tin, toss with half the olive oil and a pinch of the salt, and pour the water into the tin.
- 5
Finely grate the zest from the lemon, then cut the lemon in half.
- 6
Strip the leaves from half the thyme and one rosemary sprig and chop them finely; mix with the lemon zest, remaining olive oil, remaining salt and the pepper.
- 7
Cut the garlic head in half across the middle.
- 8
Push the lemon halves, garlic halves and remaining herb sprigs into the chicken cavity.
- 9
Rub the herb and lemon mixture all over the chicken skin.
- 10
Set the chicken breast-side up on top of the vegetables and tie the legs together with kitchen string if you have it.
- 11
Roast for about 70 minutes, stirring the vegetables once halfway, until the juices run clear and the thickest part of the thigh reaches 74 °C / 165 °F on a thermometer.
- 12
Lift the chicken onto a board, cover loosely with foil and rest for 10 minutes; keep the vegetables warm in the switched-off oven.
- 13
Squeeze the roasted lemon from the cavity over the vegetables, carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables and pan juices, scattered with parsley if using.
Swaps, storage and make-ahead
Swaps
- Use 1.4 kg of bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks instead of a whole bird and roast for about 40 to 45 minutes until they reach 74 °C / 165 °F.
- Swap the baby potatoes for chunks of sweet potato or butternut squash for a different flavour.
- Replace the carrots with parsnips or add wedges of fennel alongside the onions.
- Use 1 tsp dried thyme and 1/2 tsp dried rosemary in the rub if you can't find fresh herbs.
Storage
Refrigerate the carved chicken and vegetables in covered containers within 2 hours and eat within 3 to 4 days, reheating until steaming hot. The chicken meat, stripped off the bone, can be frozen for up to 3 months, but the roasted potatoes go grainy and are best not frozen.
Make ahead
Chop the vegetables and mix the lemon-herb rub up to a day ahead, keeping the potatoes covered in cold water and everything else in the fridge. You can also rub the chicken the night before and keep it covered in the fridge until roasting.
Nutrition values are for the recipe as written.
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Allergens and nutrition
No major allergens in the ingredients.
Check the labels of packaged ingredients for allergens and suitability for your diet.
Full nutrition
| Per serving (460 g) | Per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 482 kcal | 105 kcal |
| Protein | 33.3 g | 7.2 g |
| Carbohydrates | 26.8 g | 5.8 g |
| of which sugars | 5.7 g | 1.2 g |
| Fiber | 4.4 g | 1 g |
| Fat | 27.1 g | 5.9 g |
| of which saturated | 7.4 g | 1.6 g |
| Sodium | 548 mg | 119 mg |
Nutrition is calculated from USDA FoodData Central data and may differ from what you cook.
