A slow roasted chicken with garlic and lemon, perfect for when the sun is shining. “This is also one of those recipes you can’t make once: that’s to say, after the first time, you’re hooked” says the creator Mark Binmore. It is gloriously easy: you just put everything in the roasting dish and leave it to cook in the oven, the fabulous smell will pervade the house, at any time of year, with the summer scent of lemon and thyme – and of course mellow, almost honeyed garlic…
Mark Binmore is the proprietor of Maison de l'Orb.
Ingredients
1 2-2.25kg/4lb 6oz-5lb 8oz chicken cut into 10 pieces
1 bulb garlic separated into unpeeled cloves
2 unwaxed lemons cut into chunky eighths
Fresh thyme
3 tablespoons of really good olive oil
150 ml/5 fl oz white wine or vermouth
Black pepper
1 bulb garlic separated into unpeeled cloves
2 unwaxed lemons cut into chunky eighths
Fresh thyme
3 tablespoons of really good olive oil
150 ml/5 fl oz white wine or vermouth
Black pepper
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC/325°F
2. Put the chicken pieces into a roasting tin and add garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later.
3. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up.
4. Sprinkle the white wine over the mix, grind on some black pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavour-intensifying low heat, for 2 hours.
5. Remove the foil from the roasting tin, and turn up the oven to 200ºC/400°F
6. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelize at the edges.
Serve it straight from the roasting tin if you like, after garnishing it with the rest of the thyme. Serve with vegetables, potatoes, rice or pasta – this dish goes with almost anything.
Don't forget to get some French bread to mop up the juices – bon appétit!
