Lemon, Thyme and Garlic Roast Chicken

This roast chicken is my favourite, go to, comfort food. It's relatively easy to throw together and is so delicious and juicy every time! 

The chicken gets most of its flavour from a rich tasty butter made with garlic, thyme and lemon zest. This butter is stuffed under the skin of the chicken breast and spread around the outside to guarantee not only great flavour but succulent juicy chicken every time.  

Because this chicken is packed with so much flavour it is very versatile in terms of how you can serve it. It can be served as part of a hot meal with vegetables and potatoes or on top of a salad to add an extra punch of flavour.

Finally, the left overs make the most incredible chicken broth. If you can control yourself and not eat all of the chicken you can check my roast chicken broth recipe which is perfect for any time.

Ingredients:

1 chicken
1 lemon
1/2 an onion
1 bulb of garlic
2 cloves of garlic crushed or grated
50g of butter at room temperature
the leaves from 4/5 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper

1) Zest the lemon and set aside the fruit to be used later when preparing the chicken.
2) Combine the butter, lemon zest and the crushed garlic with the leaves from the thyme sprigs in a bowl.
3) Place the chicken into the roasting tray and put the zested lemon into the cavity along with the garlic bulb and onion half.
4) Above the opening of the cavity at the top of the chicken breasts make a small slit in the skin and run your finger inside to separate the skin from the meat on both breasts. Make sure you run your finger down the full length of the breast to make a big enough opening to stuff the butter into.
5) Once you have created a pocket on each breast, stuff about half of the butter into each side. Press down from the outside of the skin to push the butter down the bird.  Any butter that is left over can be spread/rubbed over the outside of the chicken.
6) Drizzle the chicken with olive oil to prevent the butter from burning and season with salt and pepper
7) Roast for about 50  minutes - 1 hour or until the juices run clear.
8) Rest your chicken for about 15 minutes before serving for extra juiciness