No Fuss Chicken Roast

If you are like me, sometimes you just can't be bothered doing the fiddly bits.  On a night like that I just banged out a very simple no fuss chicken roast.

Put one free range chicken into a roasting pan.  Stuff a lemon in halves inside – pepper and salt the lemon halves before you shove them in.

Sprinkle the chicken skin with turmeric, lemon pepper, cayenne pepper, ginger and salt and pepper.  Rub this all in – I suggest you use disposable gloves for this if you are going to be handling vegetables afterwards.

I didn't bother to tie the chicken up with string.  Just let it do its own thing.  I put a glug of red wine into the bottom of the roasting pan and it was all good to go.

Then I left it on the bench for half an hour to start coming up towards room temperature.  Ideally it should have been longer.

I heated the oven up to 200 degrees C (approx. 400F) and then when I put the chicken in I turned it down to 170C (approx. 330F).  And then I did nothing else until taking it out to eat it.  No basting.  Nada.  I won't tell you how long to do it – it depends on how cold the chicken was when you put it in, how big it is and how hot your oven is.  I generally just wait til it is lovely and golden and I can see the skin breaking away in places.  I sometimes even get all technical and use a meat thermometer  but not this time.  The chicken will be moist because the temperature is not too high and the red wine in the bottom keeps it moist – you could use white wine, stock or just plain old water – all of them will have the same effect.

I served it with my crispy roasted potatoes and that good old standby frozen peas.