Festive roast chicken

Name: Festive roast chicken
Cook time: 130 min
Total time: 130 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 2 slices of bread or panettone (100g total); 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon; 180g vac-packed chestnuts; olive oil; 2 butternut squash (1.2kg each); 2 red onions; 2 bunches of sage (40g total); red wine vinegar; 1 x 1.5kg whole chicken; runny honey

Honey bacon crumbs, roasted squash, chestnut gravy & crispy sage

2 hrs 10 mins (Prep 10 minutes, Cook 2 hours)

Not Too Tricky

serves 6

About the recipe

Life is too short to not experiment with your roast every once in a while. This festive recipe could be the new star of your Christmas spread.

nutrition per serving

Calories

30%

Fat

44%

Saturates

39%

Sugars

23%

Salt

17%

Protein

74%

Carbs

18%

Fibre

of an adult’s reference intake

Recipe From

ONE

By Jamie Oliver

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Ingredients

2 slices of bread or panettone (100g total)

4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

180g vac-packed chestnuts

olive oil

2 butternut squash (1.2kg each)

2 red onions

2 bunches of sage (40g total)

red wine vinegar

1 x 1.5kg whole chicken

runny honey

Top Tip

Carefully pour boiling water over the bunch of sage before you use it – this will help to release the essential oils, which is key to big flavour.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
Tear the bread into a large shallow casserole pan with the bacon, crumble in just a few chestnuts, add a little drizzle of olive oil, and place on a high heat. Toast for 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp, stirring regularly, then tip into a food processor and leave to cool.
Carefully halve each squash lengthways, discarding the seeds. Peel and quarter the onions.
Pick most of the sage into a pestle and mortar with a good pinch of sea salt. Pound into a paste, muddle in 2 tablespoons each of olive oil and red wine vinegar, then rub all over the chicken, inside and out.
Scatter the onions and remaining chestnuts into the empty casserole pan and sit the chicken on top, tucking the chestnuts underneath it. Place in the oven with the squash halves, cut side up, on the shelf beneath. Roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, or until the chicken is golden and cooked through.
Remove the pan from the oven, move the chicken to a large board and leave to rest. Pick the remaining sage leaves, rub with a little oil and lay over the squash halves, leaving them in the oven for another 30 minutes.
Generously brush the chicken with honey. Blitz the bread mixture until fine, then evenly sprinkle over and pat on to the chicken.
Boil the kettle. Tip the rest of the contents of the casserole pan into the processor, add 300ml of boiling kettle water and blitz until smooth. Pour back into the pan and simmer to the consistency of your liking, then season to perfection.
Move the squash to the board. Add lashings of gravy, and dig in.

For a little Christmas love, you can easily swap the chicken for a whole turkey – just make sure you stuff the cavity with your favourite stuffing recipe. Follow the timings below depending on the weight of your bird:

4-5kg – cook 2¼ to 2½ hours

5-6kg – cook 2½ to 3 hours

6-7kg – cook 3 hours to 3½ hours

7-8kg – cook 3½ to 4 hours

8-9kg – cook 4 to 4¼ hours

9-10kg – cook 4¼ to 4½ hours

Roast the turkey for the required time, or until the juices run clear from the thickest part of the thigh if you pierce it with a knife or a skewer. You can also use a thermometer to check the internal temperature of the turkey – a supermarket higher-welfare bird should be cooked to at least 70°C. If you have a dry-plucked, dry-aged, excellent quality bird, you can cook it to 65°C. And don’t forget – turkeys between 4-6kg should be rested for 1½ hours, and ones from 6-10kg can rest for 2 hours. Find out more.

Tags

Chicken Meat Christmas Entertaining