Recipe & Words by Alethea Mauro
This is an old family favourite that is always a crowd pleaser – yet super easy! The chicken is always full of flavour and most importantly MOIST and the lemony potatoes are delicious with a capital D!!!….there is always a fight over the last potato in our house!
Ingredients:
(serves 4)
1 whole chicken (minimum 1.2Kg)
5-6 large potatoes
Juice of 2 lemons
6 cloves garlic (2 sliced, 4 crushed)
Olive oil (to drizzle)
½ tsp. dried oregano or a few sprigs of fresh oregano (or herb of choice)
Sea salt
Black pepper
1 ½ cups water
Aluminium foil to cover baking tray
Method:
Preheat oven to 200 C
1. Wash and rinse and remove any fat from chicken, pat dry.
2. Score the chicken with slits. Insert the sliced garlic into the slits and also under the skin and sprinkle with oregano. Salt and pepper chicken as desired.
3. Put chicken in large baking tray and pour the water into the baking tray (water should cover base of tray approx. 1 inch deep). Drizzle a little olive oil over the chicken.
4. Cover the chicken with aluminium foil and bake in oven for approx. 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, peel and quarter, potatoes (you can substitute with other vegetables e.g. carrots, sweet potato or pumpkin – potatoes are our family favourite) place in a large bowl and add the crushed garlic and lemon juice to the bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Leave to marinade whilst chicken continues to cook.
6. After 30 minutes remove chicken from oven and uncover, assemble vegetables around the chicken and pour all the lemon & garlic marinade over the chicken and vegetables. Turn the heat down to 180 C, keep chicken uncovered and return to the oven for approx. another 1 hour (or until juice runs clear when pricked). The secret to keeping your chicken yummy and moist is to baste the chicken with the surrounding juices every so often. Please note that I do not turn the chicken over. (Depending on size of chicken it should take approximate 1 hour 30 mins to 2 hours).
Serve chicken and potatoes drizzled with the pan juices! Crusty bread is always a great addition for mopping up the pan juices!
