Making a roast dinner is one of my favourite things, but sometimes you can have a billion things going on at once. Although that is part of the fun, challenge and reward of making a British roast dinner I wanted to try out a way that makes it a little less intense – a one pan roast dinner. Everything is made in here, we roast the chicken and vegetables, plus include the gravy with the pan juices at the end! This worked surprisingly well and it can be altered to work with other meats too, good luck!
First up get your chicken ready, give it a wash, pat dry with a cloth and remove any string holding the legs together. Put the butter, mixed herbs in a small bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until softened, grate the lemon to add some zest in & add a dash of salt and pepper, then stir through. Now slice the lemon in half.
Place the 2 lemon halves inside the chicken, then rub the chicken all over with the herb butter mixture. Do this in the roasting tray to save having to move it. Now add the potatoes, carrots, parsnips and swede to the pan and drizzle on the vegetable oil. Stir well to coat the vegetables in the oil. Make sure the vegetables are evenly spread out to help it cook consistently.
Bake the chicken and vegetables in a pre-heated oven for 200fan/220c/gas7 for 25 minutes to get it all going. Then lower the heat to 180fan/200c/gas6 and cook for a further hour. If using a larger chicken refer to the cooking instructions in that as this is what dictates the whole cooking time. If it is longer (a larger chicken), you may want to cook the chicken on it’s own for a bit. This is also the case if you use beef etc instead.
Half way through the cooking do take it out the oven and gently push the vegetables around to help cook evenly. Then for the last 15 minutes add the chicken stock, water, frozen peas and Worcester sauce, stir carefully through, then return to the oven.
Remove and carve the chicken in the pan or separately if you prefer! That’s it, play around with this idea, maybe make the gravy separately with the juices in the pan or use different veg etc. Enjoy!