Bank Holiday Roast Chicken

Usually, my roast chicken is a fairly standard recipe - a whole chicken, seasoned inside and out with lots of salt and pepper, perhaps chinese five spice, with some browning agent such as chinese soy sauce or a honey glaze on the top to provide the crispy skin. After eating the chicken, you can keep the bones to make a good chicken stock.

On bank holiday Monday yesterday, I reversed the standard roast chicken recipe. You begin with taking the bones out of the chicken. It is takes a bit of practice, and once you get it, you will find it is relatively simple. Start to de-bone the chicken from the backbone - taking the a sharp knife to lift the skin off, moving down towards to inside of the leg. I prefer to keep the bone intact for the lower drumstick. Remove the upper thigh bone, and work your way down to the breast bone. Keep your knife close to the bone as possible. I keep the bone on the wing for the same reason - keeps the shape of the chicken even after the bones are removed. Repeat the process for the other side of the chicken. You should get a chicken in a "butterfly" shape. You can move the fillet of breast into the gaps between the thigh and wing. (If you can't be bothered doing this, or my instructions are too hard to follow, ask your local butcher to de-bone for you!)

Prepare a chicken stock with the bones - adding onions, celery, carrots and my own preferred ingredient, a quarter of a fennel bulb. You can add herbs - e.g. lemon thyme or parsley - which goes well with the stock.

The stuffing consists of an apple (preferably Bramley cooking apples), lemon or lime zest and the juice of the lemon or lime, parsley, melted butter and breadcrumbs. You may wish to bind the stuffing with an egg. Depending on the palates of your guests, you can add slice fresh chillies or stronger herbs such as lemon thyme. Sage goes well with the chicken stuffing too.

Before you spread the stuffing evenly inside the "butterfly" cavity of the deboned chicking, you should add a few knobs of butter in the center where the skins meets the breast. This will keep the breast meat moist and the skin cripsy too (from the inside). Bundle up the chicken (see photo) with stuffing inside, and tie with 5 pieces of string. It should be firmly held together by the strings, not too tight. Line the remaining fennel build on the bottom of your roasting dish with onions (French ones are the best i find). Roast for about 40-50 min for 1.5kg chicken (preferably free range corn fed chicken - tastes much better). Start at high 220 celsius for about 15-20 mins, and then turn down to 200 celsius cover with aluminium foil.

I like to serve with roast potatoes, slow-roasted tomatoes (with basil and sea salt), steamed carrots, and the cooked vegetables from the bottom of the roasting dish. In my case, I served cous cous infused with the chicken stock and flavoured with sultanas, lime, fresh coriander and salt cured lemon slices.