I’ve stolen this recipe from Kate. Deal with it.
– 1 chicken
– Few slices of pancetta or bacon
– Few spigs of herbs. Rosemary and sage are nice, but I usually make it with anything that comes to hand
– 1 lemon
– olive oil, salt, pepper
Pre-heat the oven to 190C
Wash the chicken and pat it dry. Chop together the herbs and a bit of peel from the lemon. Rub this mix into the cavity of the chicken with a grind or two of pepper and salt (feels very pornographic). Line the cavity with the pancetta.
Lay 2 strips of foil over a baking dish, they need to be big enough to wrap the chicken in. Lay the chicken on the foil, salt and pepper it then drizzle with the juice of the lemon and olive oil (sometimes I stuff the left over lemon quarters and a rosemary sprig or two underneath the skin of the breast, sometimes I can’t be bothered).
Wrap the chicken up in its foil packet and put it into the oven to roast for about 45 minutes. Then open the foil packet and turn the heat up to 220C to get the skin to brown (about another 20 minutes or so).
Carve it up, rescue the pancetta and serve.