The ladies and I decided to keep our get together low key and personal. Meghan C. kindly offered to host the event, and it was a GREAT success. Check out our festivities:
I volunteered to make the main dish - my first ever chicken roast. I used a Jamie Oliver recipe "Roast Chicken Recipe with Lemon and Rosemary Potatoes" mostly because he used the words ‘chuffed’ and 'some lovely fat'. I just couldn’t resist - I love anything British!
Jamie’s recipes always seem simplistic, but are flavorful and delicious. The technique of boiling the lemon with the potatoes and then transferring it into the cavity of the chicken really tenderized the meat and gave the potatoes a lemony hint that meshed well with the chicken. Some photos below.
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2kg/4½lb potatoes, peeled
• 1 large, preferably unwaxed, lemon
• 1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
• a handful of fresh thyme
• olive oil
• a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
• optional: 8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
While the lemon is still hot, carefully stab it about 10 times. Take the chicken out of the fridge, pat it with kitchen paper and rub it all over with olive oil. Push the garlic cloves, the whole lemon and the thyme into the cavity, then put the chicken into a roasting tray and cook in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate. Some lovely fat should have cooked out of it into the roasting tray, so toss the potatoes into this with the rosemary leaves. Shake the tray around, then make a gap in the centre of the potatoes and put the chicken back in. If using the bacon, lay the rashers over the chicken breast and cook for a further 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are nice and golden. (You can tell the chicken is cooked when the thigh meat pulls easily away from the bone and the juices run clear.)
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