Foolproof slow roast chicken

I visited our local farm shop yesterday to stock up my freezer, the one thing I wouldn't freeze is a whole chicken and the chickens from Kilnford Barns are delicious.  It's been a busy weekend so I didn't want any kind of complicated recipe and was just going to do a straightforward roast.  However,  I was tidying up my cookbook holder (many printed out copies of recipes, sauce splattered magazines - you know what I mean) and found the little BBC Good Food booklet '80 best-ever recipes'.  On the front cover was a roasted chicken so I read on...basically, put it all in the oven and leave it for 2 hrs 20 mins - ideal for my purpose!

 

You can get the full recipe on the BBC Good Food website HERE . 

However, of course,  I did make a few wee changes  I didn't have two garlic heads, so used a glug of Roasted Garlic juice (from a bottle).  I also didn't want to open a bottle of white wine so I used a small bottle of Crabbies Alcholic Ginger Beer and, oh boy did that make great gravy - I think a good cider would give a similar result.

The long slow roasting with the mixture of stock and your choice of alcohol made the chicken very moist and delicious.  I was a bit concerned that the potatoes would be soggy, but they were nice and soft inside and crisp on the outside, not quite like the roast potatoes I would normally make, but they had absorbed the lovely flavour of the chicken, herbs and gravy, quite delicious.