Place Chicken in a pre-heated oven at 180°C and roast for approximately 1 - 1.5 hours. Chefs tip: Rub butter over breasts and thighs of Chicken, season, place a halved orange into carcass with coarsley cut carrot and onion around the chicken and brown in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover with Streaky bacon then cover with foil, return to oven for remaining 1hr. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before serving, retain juices to make gravy.
To make a rich homemade gravy.
Save stock from cooked vegetables in a sauce pan. Mash vegetables which were surrounding chicken in oven dish. Transfer chicken juices and mashed carrots & onions from oven dish into pot holding vegetable stock and simmer on a high heat for 10 minutes. Pour gravy mixture through a sieve into a clean pot. Add a chicken stock cube or gel into gravy mixture along with 1/2 a pint of water simmer for a further 10 minutes, add 2 - 3 spoonfuls of Bisto Granules or 1 spoonful of Cornflour in 4 spoonfuls of water to thicken. Add a knob of butter and salt & pepper for flavour. Serve with fresh vegetables of your choice, stuffing and potatoes
Cook's Money Saving tip: After sufficient meat has been removed from Chicken for dinner and or sandwiches, place remaining cooked carcass into a medium to large saucepan filled halfway up with water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hr. When cool, either in refridgerator overnight or later in the evening remove carcass from pan making sure to retain stock from sauce pan ( skim any unwanted fat from top of stock at this stage and place fat in food bin ). Remove any further meat from carcass, wings or legs, taking care to remove all bones and skin. Return meat into chicken stock with 2 packets of Chopped Soup Vegetables, 125g of Soup mix and 1 Chicken stock cube. Cover all contents with additional water if required and bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 1 - 1.5hrs. Season with salt & pepper when vegetables and soup mix are cooked, serve for lunch or dinner with buttered crustie loaf or potatoes. Serves 4 - 6 persons
