Love me some roast chicken and roast potatoes

There was a time in my life, not really all that long ago, when I thought roasting meat was difficult. Roast chicken seemed something that I couldn't possibly hope to conquer. I'd love to say I am exaggerating, but I'm not. My family never roasted anything other than lamb, and not very often that.

When I read Nigella Lawson's How to Eat she made Roast Chicken sound so simple. I felt it was something I might be able to cook after all. Now, a few years later it's such a common meal, I have made up for those decades of thinking a home cooked chook was unachievable.

The revelation of Perfect Roast Potatoes that Nigella first introduced me to in Feast and again in Nigella Christmas was incredible. I adore these! As with everything from Nigella they are surprisingly easy to achieve. Cutting the spuds roughly into triangles, par cooking them, drain, shake them about with some semolina and then put them into some searingly hot animal fat to cook until crisp. Ideally goose fat otherwise duck fat, beef fat, you get the idea. The flavour is fabulous with goose or duck fat. I tried it tonight with some 'Supafry', which is a solid cooking fat made predominantly with beef dripping I think. Yummy!

Do they look perfectly golden and crispy outside? They are! Do they look like they must be fluffy and light within? They are!

This chicken is a 2.2kg beauty. It begged to be roasted. I had some tarragon in the freezer (it's hard to come by, I always stash some in the freezer), which I chopped roughly, and mixed with a couple of tablespoons of butter and some salt flakes. Shoved that mixture under the skin into the thighs and breast of the chicken. Roasted it for 45 minutes bottoms up, and then the same time right way around. Gave it a rest for 30 minutes and away we go. Started it at 200C and then turned it down to 180 for the last half hour.

The potatoes go in (added to the preheated fat) once the chicken comes out for it's rest. The heat turned up in the oven to max. They only take that half hour. I cooked some sweet potato, parsnip and carrots (and one unskinned onion for the man of the house) under the chicken for the final half hour, and then left them in while the potatoes cooked.

This beautiful chicken moist and herby under the crispy skin is so easy. What a joy it is now to be able to make something so glorious come from MY kitchen!

I of course had to make gravy. A teeny bit of flour, some Noilly Prat, chicken stock a splash of Worcestershire and tomato sauce. Then all I need to do is ensure the first person to grab the gravy jug doesn't drown their whole plate in it - gravy's popular in our house.

Served the lot with a simple green salad with the Golden Salad Dressing we love so much. Talk about your midweek meal shining!