Classic Roast Chicken With Bone Broth Gravy
Ingredients:
A whole organic chicken
150g of unsalted butter, softened (or ghee)
6-8 garlic cloves
1 leek or onion
2 lemons
1 bunch of fresh thyme (or dried)
Good quality Celtic or Himalayan salt
Vegetables of your choice, such as: pumpkin, potatoes, carrot, broccolini, zucchini, leafy greens
Bone broth powder or concentrate - chicken is best
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and melt about 50g of butter (or ghee) on the stove on a medium heat. Save this for later.
Prepare your chicken by firstly patting it down with a paper towel to ensure it’s very dry. Rub the chicken with your desired amount of softened butter or ghee - about 50g. Dice up several garlic cloves and stuff them between the chicken skin and breast. Cut two slices of lemon and stuff under the skin of each breast as well. Halve the rest of the lemon and stuff it inside the chicken, along with a large bunch of the fresh thyme. Cover the chicken skin generously with salt, pepper and thyme on the top and underside.
Sit the chicken in a large oven tray. Dice up a leek or onion and spread it around the chicken. Smash the remaining garlic cloves and sit them in the tray too. Use your choice of vegetables that take a decent amount of time to cook, such as pumpkin, potatoes and/or carrot. Dice them in large chunks and scatter around the chicken and leek. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, more thyme and the melted butter. Mix all the vegetables together and spread them evenly. Cut another lemon in half and sit it on top of the vegetables.
Cook the chicken for about 1/1.5 hours, depending on the size of your bird. For about a 2.5kg chicken, it can take around 1.5 hours, whereas a 2kg one would take around 1 hour and 10 minutes. Check the chook half way though and stir the veggies around. It will be cooked when you slice between the leg and the breast and can see it is cooked all the way through.
About 20 minutes before serving, prepare the rest of your vegetables. You can steam broccolini and zucchini, for example, while leafy greens such as chard, kale or silver beet taste delicious sauteed in a pan with ghee and garlic.
When the chicken is ready, remove all the vegetables from the tray, leaving just the garlic and leek. Drain the juices from the chicken into the pan and remove the chicken too.
To make the gravy, if you are using a metal tray, you can set this over your stove on a medium heat. When it starts to warm up, add in about 25/50g of butter and a tablespoon of bone broth powder. Alternatively, warm up about 25/50g of butter on a low in a saucepan and pour in the juices and bone broth. You have to ensure it doesn’t get too hot otherwise the chicken juices will evaporate! Stir until the broth and butter have melted completely - the gravy doesn’t need too long to cook. Taste it and adjust the flavours if you need - more lemon, butter or salt and pepper.
Carve up your chicken and serve with your veggies and bone broth gravy!
Notes:
It can be a bit difficult to work out cooking times for a chicken. If you have a meat thermometer, stick this in the thickest part of the chicken (the leg or breast) and when it comes out around 65°C - 70°C, it will be good to go.
The beauty of a roast chicken is that you can keep the bones in your freezer to make a broth as well, so you’re really getting more than a few meals out of it!
When buying chicken, if you can, choose the best quality. Top tier is pasture-raised and organic, otherwise just organic is the next best. Avoid free-range or just regular chicken as sadly the meat it often not great quality, could be filled with antibiotics and are raised poorly. I can highly recommend companies like Forage Farms who ensure all of their chickens roam freely on their pastures and are fed high-quality, organic feed (no antibiotics and nasties).
For this recipe, I love the Chicken Bone Broth Powder from Nutra Organics. You can get $10 off your first order here.
