Pot roasted chicken in cider
During the cold months of the year I like easy roast dinners and Sunday lunches. The easiest way of making a roast is to put everything into a pot or tray. This pot roasted chicken in cider is my favourite roast meal during harvest when apples are in abundance. I served it with mashed potatoes and a green salad – you can serve it with side dishes of your choice.
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 C degrees.
- Cut the carrots lengthwise, then cover the base of a large casserole dish with them.
- Cut the apple and onion into four wedges and put one of each into the chicken’s cavity. Also, add one half of the garlic bulb, the cinnamon stick and 2 sprigs of thyme.
- Mix the butter or dairy-free spread with the remaining thyme leaves. Set a tablespoonful aside in a small bowl, then rub the chicken with the rest, under and all over the skin, using your fingers.
- Put the chicken on top of the carrots and put the onion and apple wedges around it. Add the bay leaf.
- Season with salt & pepper, then pour over the cider.
- Put the lid on and put the dish into the oven. Cook for an hour and a half, then take it out of the oven and carefully remove the lid.
- Mix the maple syrup with the remaining thyme-butter and brush this over the skin of the chicken.
- Put the chicken back into the oven, without the lid, and cook for 15 minutes or so until the skin is crispy and golden.
- Do a test under the highs with a skewer – if clean jus is coming out, the chicken is cooked through.
- Place the chicken onto a serving plate and put the carrots and apples around it. Pour the cooking jus into a jar.
- After a few minutes of resting, carve the chicken and serve with side dishes, drizzled with the jus.