A couple of weeks my good friend Corrie did up a roast chicken with an apple and some onion. It was really good so when my aunt requested chicken of some sort for her birthday dinner I knew I wanted to do a version of that chicken. I love a good roast and it is finally cool enough to dust off the ovens properly and start exercising them again!
I’ve mentioned before I can’t believe there are 12 of us now in the family. Problem is all the kids are still growing and it was a bit of a puzzle to get us all round the table. We have sort of a kids table dog-legging off the main table so we all fit in the dining room but that was a tight squeeze for the kids as well. The crazy thing about our house is while it’s large, it’s a lot of hallways and regular size rooms. But given how fast the all the kids are growing (my youngest nephew will need his own chair soon!) we need to get that sorted.
It is wonderful having everyone together. It is hard with all of us so busy but so important too. My daughter made a fabulous cheesecake. I’ll need to have her make it again so I can do a post on it. And well, so we can eat it again. 🙂
This is a great dish for a large gathering as it is easy to put together. My sister and mum brought starters. We did up some roast potatoes, Brussel sprouts, and carrots for the veg.
Preheat the oven to 325F/160C. I chopped up some fresh sage from our garden and half an apple. The dogs got the other half. They were looking very hopeful.
In the roasting pan I place the chicken add the sage and apple, chop a bit of onion and add that with a cup of water and half a cup of white wine. I drizzle some olive oil over the chicken and season with salt and pepper.
I cover mine so the chicken stays moist for all but the last 20 minutes or so. I do a bit of broil to bring up the skin and the meat is tender and moist at the end. Cooking time is about 25 minutes per pound. I do baste a few times.
Remove the chicken from the pan and cover with tin foil to keep warm. Bring the gravy mixture to a boil and add a bit of flour mixed into the water to thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Allow it to boil for a few minutes to make sure the flour is cooked.
Pour the gravy over the chicken and enjoy.
This had a light taste of sage and apple to it. It came out quite delicate but worked really well with the chicken.