Rosemary may be associated with lamb, but it also goes beautifully with chicken. This recipe is incredibly simple but tastes delicious.
The following quantities serve four, but can easily be increased to feed more people. Buy the best chicken you can afford - free range chicken really does have a better flavour than the cheaper, mass-produced birds.
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken pieces on the bone - use whichever cuts you prefer, but a mixture of thighs and drumsticks works well
- 4 large potatoes
- 4 large carrots
- 4 small onions
- 4 large sprigs fresh rosemary, each around 3 - 4 inches long
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade. Put the chicken pieces into a large roasting tray - if you are watching your fat intake, remove the chicken skin at this stage as it will look a lot more tempting when it is golden and crispy!
- Peel the potatoes and cut into evenly sized pieces - aim for cubes of around one and a half inches across - any smaller and they will burn, and larger and they will take too long to cook. Peel the carrots and slice into thick coin-sized pieces. Peel the onions and cut each in half. Add all the vegetables to the pan with the chicken and pour the olive oil over the top. Season well with salt and pepper and give the tray a good shake so that everything is coated in the oil.
- Now add the rosemary sprigs to the roasting tray, tucking them amongst the contents of the pan rather than just leaving them on the top where they may burn.
- Cook on the top shelf of the oven for around an hour, until the chicken pieces are cooked (test by inserting a knife to check the juices run clear) and the vegetables are browned and feel soft when you stick a knife into them. During cooking, give the pan a good shake every so often to make sure everything browns evenly. You should find that some of the rosemary comes loose from the sprigs and sticks to the contents of the pan - simply discard the bare twigs when you dish up.
- Serve with a green vegetable such as steamed cabbage or broccoli. You may also wish to serve crusty bread to mop up the sticky pan juices.
Variations: this recipe works well with any root vegetable - try using parsnips or sweet potatoes in place of the potatoes or carrots but remember that sweet potatoes should be added to the pan 20 minutes later than everything else as they cook so quickly.
The copyright of the article Roast Chicken with Rosemary in Dinner Recipes is owned by Elizabeth Gregory. Permission to republish Roast Chicken with Rosemary in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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