Stuffed Roast Chicken With Rosemary And Lemon Thyme

It has been a long time since I last roasted a whole chicken. I would normally roast either wings or half chicken or sometimes just chicken legs for our dinner. Yesterday , I decided to roast the whole chicken and stuffed the cavity with leeks, diced carrots and diced potatoes. The drippings from the chicken during the process of roasting will further add flavor and sweeten the veggies stuffing.  Easy to prepare and as the saying goes " killing two birds with one stone "  we have meat and veggies cooked at one go :) 

It feels like Christmas has come early.  The seasoning consists of ingredients like sea salt , black pepper and raw honey. For extra flavors,  I added fresh herbs like rosemary, lemon thyme to give texture and fragrance to the chicken and butter on the chicken to give it a glaze look after roasting. It is good to marinate the chicken overnight to have a more intense flavor.  I used greaseproof paper to line the base of the baking pan for easy washing :)  Nobody likes the washing, that includes me :p I love to cook but I hate all the washing that comes with the cooking !

I baked the leeks, diced carrots and potatoes for 15 mins in the oven @200C

before stuffing into the cavity of the chicken..reason being it helps to soften
and gives extra flavor and with the drippings from the chicken, the veggies
stuffing will taste delicious !

this is the reason why I love to plant my own herbs, I use them often :)

stuff the cavity with the roasted veggies last

place the chicken on a rack with a lined tray and roast for

50-55 mins @200C

Hubby loves the skin to be crispy and a bit charred

and the fat under the skin has melted away....

rest the chicken for 15 mins before carving

smell so good...

I craved out half the breast for the hubby before taking a picture

this photo is not well taken as the carved side, texture is not clearly defined ...

still room for improvement... food photography is the hardest I guess for me :p

Stuffed Roast Chicken With Rosemary  And Lemon Thyme 

ingredients 

1 whole medium sized chicken of your choice

seasoning for the marinating the chicken

(A)

1/2 tbsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

2 tbsp of raw honey

(B)

a few sprig of lemon thyme

a sprig of rosemary

a tbsp of butter - room temperature 

veggies stuffing

1 carrot - diced to bite sized
1 leek - sliced
2 potato - diced to bite sized black pepper
a tsp of sea salt
a dash of ground black pepper

* bake the cut veggies in oven for  15 mins before stuffing into the chicken

Method:

Marinate chicken overnight or for at least 4 hours with ingredients (A). Roast the cut veggies for 15 mins @200C . Take the chicken out of the fridge 1 hour before roasting, Rub ingredients (B) all over the chicken and spread butter all over the chicken.  Stuff the roasted veggies into the cavity of the chicken . Place the stuffed chicken on a rack on  a lined baking tray and roast for 50-55 mins @200C. Rest roasted chicken for 15 mins before carving.

Enjoy!