On the way home from an afternoon of errands I stopped by Chilcott’s Butchery and picked up two plump, fresh chooks perfect for this evening’s roast dinner. 

I am a huge fan of roast chicken partly for the lip smacking savoury flavour and the enticing aroma that wafts through the house while cooking, but also because it lends itself to two meals from the one basic bird. Once the juicy meat has been sliced free of the bones and cartilage and snaffled up by enthusiastic eaters, the carcass remains. This can be simmered into a full flavoured stock and strained to be used for a clear consume style broth with the addition of good quality fine egg noodles. Alternatively it can become the base of a hearty soup with added vegetables, barley or rice or even those tiny tortellini or miniature pork and veal meatballs. A whole, good quality chicken is a healthy and economical way of feeding a family or a crowd with rounds of applause guaranteed. 

Raw, marinated chooks ready for roasting

I still had some fresh thyme left over in the fridge and decided to incorporate this with lemons, verjuice and a little garlic butter as the marinade for the chickens. 


I also pulled the remaining duck fat out of the freezer to melt and smother over whole potatoes, sweet parsnip and Dutch carrots as they baked. I added extra potatoes because my eldest daughter (who was adamant that she would NEVER eat anything to do with duck) almost inhaled the crispy duck fat potatoes I had made in May and has been asking me to make this dish again ever since. I put this pan into the oven about 45 minutes before the chickens were ready. 


A bruschetta salad served alongside sensational sourdough freshly baked by Pino from Locantro Leichhardt, added colour, additional vitamins and a burst of tangy tomato-basil flavour. The children piled this salad on top of the thickly sliced bread which effectively soaked up the balsamic infused juices. 

Although I use several lettuce varieties in my salads, the one that my children enjoy eating the most is iceberg lettuce – the most common and affordable one of all. A simple salad of iceberg lettuce sliced into wide ribbons added crunch and completed the meal. 

Lemon, Thyme and Verjuice Roast Chicken to generously feed 8 people

Ingredients
2 x 1.8 kg whole chickens, rinsed and patted dry with paper hand towels
sea salt to taste
decent handful of fresh thyme stalks
2 large lemons
1 cup verjuice – this is the juice of grapes that have not been fermented and is available from either your speciality grocer (Maggie Beer variety which has the best flavour) or from the vinegar aisle in Coles supermarkets. 
25 g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove crushed

Preheat your oven to 225 degrees fan forced. 

Put the chickens into a large baking dish, breast side facing up. I use a stainless steel All Clad pan because it distributes the heat well, is large enough to hold two chickens and washes easily at the end. 

Squeeze the juice from the lemons over the whole chook and then rub the outside of each one with sea salt (about 3 teaspoons in total) and add an additional teaspoon inside the cavity. This will help to crisp up the skin during the roasting process.

Tuck some thyme into the cavity of each chook along with the halved lemons. Dot the surface of the birds with thyme leaves. 

Melt the butter (I used the microwave for this), add the olive oil and crushed garlic. Drizzle this over each of the birds.

Pour the verjuice into the base of the roasting pan. 

Bake for about 75 minutes or until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a skewer or fork. Baste  with the pan juices halfway through the cooking process. When ready remove from the oven, cover loosely with aluminium foil and rest for another 15 minutes before carving and serving. This will relax the meat and result in a more tender dish.

Don’t waste the pan juices! Either use this to whisk up a home cooked gravy or simply spoon the juice straight from the pan over the chicken meat as it is sliced and served up. 

Juicy Bruschetta Salad

Ingredients
2 x punnets sweet grape tomatoes
1 bunch fresh basil leaves finely chopped
sea salt to taste
good grind of black pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar

Slice the grape tomatoes in half and combine with the other ingredients in your serving bowl. Leave for at least half an hour at room temperature for the flavours to develop.

Serve with fresh sourdough and invite diners to pile onto their pieces of bread as an accompaniment to their main meal.