Pot Roast Chicken

Ingredients

Whole chicken
Streaky bacon
Lemon, sliced
Handful of thyme
Butter
1 onion, peeled and roughly diced
3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
Swede, peeled, cut into rough 2cm dice
Celeriac, peeled, cut into rough 2cm dice
3 parsnips, peeled, cut into 1cm slices
2 bay leaves
Head of garlic
Bottle of white wine
Sea salt
Ground black pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Place a couple of lemon slices, sprigs of thyme and knobs of butter under the skin of each chicken breast.  Place the remaining lemon slices and some thyme sprigs inside the cavity of the bird.

Rub a knob of butter all over the skin of the chicken and season with a little salt (not too much salt as the bacon will add the required saltiness).

Line the breasts of the chicken with the slices of bacon, covering the breast with over-lapping layers. This will keep the breasts moist during roasting and impart a lovely streaky bacon flavour. 

Add all the vegetables, wine, bay leaves and remaining thyme to a casserole pot that is large enough to hold the chicken.  Put the chicken into the pot and cover with a lid. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes per 500g.  For the last 20 minutes of cooking, remove the lid and turn the oven up to 200C in order to crisp up the skin and reduce the cooking juices.  For crisp breast skin, remove the bacon and keep warm.  

Once cooked (the juices should run clear when the legs are pricked with a knife) leave to rest for 20 minutes, covered loosely with foil.

Serve with the vegetables and cooking juices for the sauce.  The juices can be reduced further for the sauce if you prefer.

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