Can you cook a nice Sunday Roast without breaking the bank??? Yes, you can. We had friends over for Sunday lunch and I didn’t have time to prepare a big bash. So I settled for roast chicken – €5 in a supermarket (yes, it was an Irish chicken) – so I thought we need to pep this one up a bit. So I was scrambling through my cupboards. Found honey and had a lemon. I read somewhere about lemon honey and thought – yeah that’s a great idea. Zested the lemon and heated the honey with the zest and let it infuse for a 2 hours.
I didn’t stuff the chicken as I couldn’t make up my mind – so I just drizzled some olive oil over the chicken and placed it breast side down in a roasting tray. Roasted the chicken on a medium heat for about 40 mins – basting it from time to time with the juices. After 40 mins I turned the chicken up, basting again and roasting it for 30 mins more – turning up the heat a bit. After about 15 mins I started to brush the lemon honey over it – repeating several times. That gave a lovely colour to the chicken and help caramelising the skin nicely.
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| Depleted Chicken |
When the chicken was done (check by pricking a skewer into the deepest part of the chicken and if the juices are clear, you can serve the chicken). Took the chicken out and set it aside, covered in foil. Chopped some shallots and placed the roasting tin on a ring on high heat after draining the fat from the tray. Adding the onions I started to scrap the residue from the tray making sure to get all the tasty bits. When the onions started to caramelise I added a cupful of white wine and let it bubble away until the wine reduced 2/3. Then I added hot chicken stock and let it bubble away again until it reduced. You can decide yourself how much you want it to reduce and if you want to thicken the sauce (I didn’t as I loved the consistency as it was). You can thicken the sauce by adding some cornflour.
I served the chicken with creamy mash potatoes, red cabbage and carrots (cooked in a bit of orange juice) and et voila, a stingy Sunday Roast that looked and tasted amazing.
Forgot to take a photo when the chicken came out – so you see what was left over
Bon Appetit
