Chicken with garlic and rosemary potatoes

During November and December I made more roast dinners than usual to practise for Christmas, so now I'm feeling more confident and able to experiment! Chicken seems the cheapest and most versatile meat as we usually have one roast dinner then use the leftovers for a curry, stir fry or chicken pie.

Normally I melt some butter in the microwave, baste it all over the chicken, sprinkle salt over and just cook it for however long it says on the packet.


Today I did the same and also added garlic cloves chopped into chunks to the bottom of the tray around the chicken and put it in the oven. Then I cut the potatoes into small cubes, par boiled them for about 5 minutes and added them to the chicken tray with a sprinkling of dried rosemary (fresh would probably be better though!) I basted the potatoes occassionally during cooking.

When the chicken was done I took it out of the oven and left it to rest (it's easier to carve then). I scooped out the potatoes and put them on another tray and put them back in the oven on the highest heat to brown. They went more crispy and than they look in the picture.

Meanwhile I made gravy - the potatoes being in the tray had made more juices than usual, so I used my superduper gravy jug to get rid of the fat, made a rue with plain flour and added chicken stock and seasoning.

It was all really tasty! Next time I want to try Jamie Oliver's Spanish chicken which looks more exciting.