Roast Chicken

Who doesn’t love Roast Chicken (well unless your a vegetarian). Roast dinner with roast potatoes and gravy. Makes me hungry just to think about it.

I like to give a little flavour to my roast chicken and this is just one such rub that I use regularly. The couscous gives the skin a crispness that rubs containing flour struggle to do, but you can omit it if your feeding anyone who is intolerant to gluten, the rest of the flavours will work just as well.

If you use dried garlic or leave the clove out until the day you cook you can easily prepare the rub in bulk to have readily available.

For the rub

1 tsp Fennel seeds

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1 tsp Yellow mustard seeds

1/2 tsp Sage

1/2 tsp Oregano

1 tbsp Couscous

1/2 tsp Maldon sea salt

1/2 tsp Chilli flakes

1 clove Garlic

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 small Onion

Grind all the herbs and spices together in a pestle and mortar, then add the olive oil, stir in. Rub all over the chicken, pop the onion into the chickens cavity.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 (190c/375f).

Use a roasting tray (see below) with a basket to keep the chicken suspended out of the juices. Cover the chicken with foil and roast for 20 minutes per lb (450g) plus another 15-20 minutes extra. After the first 30 minutes remove the foil and baste. If you are roasting vegetables along side the chicken then this is a good time to add them, when you check on these you can baste the chicken again, approx 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Leave to rest covered for around 15 minutes before serving.

For a perfect roast check out this Kitchen Craft Premium Roaster Set