This all-in-one roast chicken meal is perfect for a summer Sunday lunch option with friends or family.
New potatoes get tossed in tarragon and then topped with a zesty buttered chicken, covered with pancetta to protect the juiciness of the breasts. All of the delicious juices from the chicken drip down onto the potatoes for extra flavour - summer never tasted so good!
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Yields:
4 serving(s)
Prep Time:
20 mins
Cook Time:
1 hr 25 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 45 mins
Cal/Serv:
869
Ingredients
750g
small waxy potatoes, halved
20g
fresh tarragon, roughly chopped
2Tbsp.
olive oil
50g
butter, softened
2
cloves garlic, crushed
1
lemon
1
.4kg free-range chicken
12
pancetta slices
400g
cherry tomatoes on the vine
Directions
Step 1Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. Toss the potatoes, ½ the tarragon, the oil and some seasoning in roasting tin large enough to hold the chicken with some space around it. Set aside.
Step 2In a small bowl, mix the butter, garlic, remaining tarragon, some seasoning and the finely grated zest of the lemon. Put the chicken on a board and pat dry with kitchen paper. Halve the zested lemon, squeeze juice into the chicken cavity then tuck the lemon halves inside the bird. Lift up the neck flap and use your fingers to ease the skin gently away from the flesh along the length of the breast.
Step 3Spread ½ the flavoured butter mixture under the skin, all over the breast. Rub remaining butter all over the bird. Sit, breast-up, in the roasting tin, moving the potatoes to the sides. Lay the pancetta over the breast of the chicken and tie the legs together with kitchen string.
Step 4Roast for 40min, or until the legs are golden and the pancetta is starting to crisp. Turn oven down to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4 and pour 100ml water into the tin. Roast for a further 40-45min, adding the tomatoes to the tin for the final 20min. A meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh should read at least 75°C.
Step 5Loosely cover tin with foil and set aside to rest in a warm place for 20min, before serving with the juices in the tin.
If you're not a fan of tarragon (it has more of an aniseed flavour), then try using parsley, dill or coriander instead for that hit of freshness.
When lifting up the skin to put the butter underneath, do it very carefully so as not to rip it.
Why not try adding slices of courgette to the potatoes at the same time as the tomatoes for even more vegetable goodness?
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
