Herb and Garlic Roasted Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

• 2kg whole chicken, patted dry
• Salt and pepper
• 2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 3 rosemary sprigs

Butter

• 100g unsalted butter, melted
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon sage, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoon rosemary, finely chopped

Under Chook

• 1 cup/250 ml dry white wine, or chicken broth
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 garlic bulb, halved horizontally

METHOD:

• Preheat oven to 220˚C (standard) or 200˚C (fan). Mix together butter ingredients. Add juice from 2 wedges of lemon.
• Place chicken in a roasting pan. Use a dessert spoon to loosen skin from chicken. Do the top (the breast) and the drumsticks – not the underside.
•  Prop chicken upright, drizzle butter under skin, using most of the garlic/herb mix, but saving a bit of butter for the skin. Drizzle the remaining butter all over the surface of the chicken. Squeeze over the juice of 2 lemon wedges.
•  Stuff used lemon wedges and rosemary inside the chicken. Tie drumstick ends with string and tuck wing tips under the chicken.
• Sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Place onion and garlic in the pan, place chicken on top. Pour wine around, drizzle chicken with oil.
•  Transfer to oven. Roast for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180˚C (all oven types). Roast for a further 1 hr 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 75˚C. Baste twice (30 min then at 1 hr), spooning pan juices over the skin.
• Rest for 15 minutes – don’t cover, skin becomes wet. Serve with pan juices.