Roast chicken seems a simple dish but it's trickier than it looks. The timing has to be right so it's not under or overdone and the meat stays moist. This recipe uses a very simple wet roasting technique, doubling as marinade. The sweetness of the carrots and yeasty flavours of the fino sherry permeate the flesh for an incredible result.
1 free-range 1.5kg chicken, cut in half
750ml fino sherry
150ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp thyme leaves, chopped
8 bay leaves, gently crushed
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 brown onions, roughly chopped
1 garlic bulb, cloves peeled and roughly crushed
4 pinches sea salt flakes
Marinate the chicken by putting it in a bowl with the sherry, olive oil, thyme, bay leaves, carrots and onions.
Rub the crushed garlic into the chicken pieces and put the remains of the garlic in the marinade.
Baste the chicken with the marinade several times, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. When ready to cook, heat the oven to 180C.
Remove the chicken from the marinade and set aside. Pour the marinade into a roasting tin and make a bed with the vegetables.
Lay the chicken on top of the vegetables and season with salt. Roast for one hour.
Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes. Carve the meat and serve with the vegetables and a little of the cooking juices.
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