Apple and Cider roasted chicken
At harvest time, I find roast dinners really comforting. I particularly love cooking with apples and pears – roast pork, chicken and duck are my favourite Autumn meals. I made this apple and cider roasted chicken because I needed to use up come apple cider and bought lots of apples at the market. The chicken was yummy and succulent – I served it with mashed potatoes, honey roasted carrots and parsnips and steamed green veggies.
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Rub the chicken with the butter. Quarter the apples. Put 2 pieces in the cavity together with 2 sprigs of thyme, the onion and the garlic.
- Season with salt and pepper pour the cider into a roasting tin then place the chicken in the middle of it. Put the apple pieces around it, then scatter the rest of the thyme leaves all over the dish.
- Cover the tin with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Take off the foil, baste the chicken with the cider sauce every 15 minutes, until the chicken is golden brown.
- Test the legs with a skewer, if the juice coming out of it is clear, then the chicken is cooked through.
- Rest the chicken and apple pieces on a plate (covered), the reduce the cooking juice into a thick sauce on the hob. ( You can add some corn flour/ starch to it if you like).
- Carve the chicken and serve with the cooked apples, the cider gravy and side dishes of your choice.