Roast Chicken Dinner with Roasted Veggies

I had plans for a roast chicken dinner with roasted veggies, the nights are drawing in and the thought of no heating in the house was beginning to depress me. It’s not freezing..YET.

The central heating guy had gone to Spain for his holidays and I’d told him not to worry about anything until he came back. The forecast was good so I was thinking no problems, even went swimming on the Wednesday, however during the swim time it started clouding over and we had to get out of the pool, besides the leaves were falling in quicker than we could scoop them out!

Abel and Cole had delivered an organic chicken in the morning, 8am on the dot, what service!
So off home, and start cooking.

Took the chicken out of the fridge half an hour before cooking, to let it get to room temperature, put the oven on to Gas mark 9.

I’d noticed the Jamie Oliver stuffed a hot lemon in the cavity of the chicken, just pierce the lemon several times with a sharp knife and heat on full power in the microwave for 15 seconds, it steams out the flavour perfectly.
I put some fresh herbs in, and a whole garlic bulb with the top sliced off. More on that later….

I had a couple of parsnips left over from Sunday lunch, I prepped them along with a couple of sweet potatoes, ordinary potatoes and carrots. Par boiled them for 10 minutes, drained off the water and give them a good old shake to fluff them up, then poured them into a hot baking tray and drizzled some olive oil over, and gave the tray a shake.

Turned the heat down to Gas mark 5. The chicken and veggies can go in the oven all at the same time if you prefer, but I like to let the meat rest for half an hour after cooking, so I put the veggies in about half way through the cooking time. The chicken weighed in at 1.549kg and took 1 hour 30 minutes to cook.

At this point I took out the garlic bulb from the cavity topped it with a slice of butter and wrapped it in foil, then put it in with the veggies to finish off.

When the chicken had rested, and the veggies were done, I scooped out the pulp from the garlic bulb and spread it over the chicken.

The following day we had enough chicken left over for dinner. I had seen an appetiser "Ratatouille Terrine" on Food Mayhem which I wanted to make, and this would go perfectly with cold chicken.

If you want to see a step by step photo guide hop over to Jessica and she takes you through it with photos.
It’s not difficult to make and this is the finished result.

Ratatouille Terrine

Serves 6-8 Appetizer/Side
Prep Time 25 mins
Ingredients

• 3 Large bell peppers, red, orange and yellow, deseeded and roasted
• 1 Large aubergine (eggplant)
• 2 Large courgettes (zucchini)
• 4 Tbsp Olive oil
• Rock salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 15 fl oz Passata
• 2 Tbsp Gelatine

Method

• Heat the grill/broiler
• Cut the peppers into quarters, lengthways this makes it easier to remove the skin once you've charred them. Take out the stalks and deseed
• Push the peppers down firmly on the grill rack to ensure all the skin is exposed to the heat, grill on high until the skins are black
• Set aside until cool, then peel off the black skin
• Or you can put the peppers straight into a plastic bag, seal and leave for 15 minutes to sweat, then peel, your choice
• Lay a sheet of aluminium foil on the rack
• Slice the courgettes lengthwise, about 1/4″ thick
• Lay on the foil and baste with 2 Tbsp olive oil, both sides and season
• Grill until golden, 3 minutes each side
• Set aside
• Slice the aubergine lengthways, and repeat the procedure
• Grease a 9”x5”x2 ½’’ loaf tin, then lay clingfilm (plastic wrap) against the bottom and side with extra hanging out from the sides.
• Put the Passata in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatine over the top. Dissolve while stirring over low heat. Do not allow it to boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Put a layer of roasted peppers down in the prepared loaf pan. Spread 2 tablespoons of passata/gelatine mixture on top. Place a layer of courgette/zucchini on top with another 2 tablespoons of passata/gelatine. Place a layer of eggplant on top and more passata/gelatine. Continue layering until you finish the vegetables.
• Any remaining passata/gelatine mixture pour over the top, and give a gently shake to the tin, just to make sure the passata is dispersed evenly
• Cover up with the plastic wrap. Refrigerate to set, at least 4 hours

Cook's tips

• Can be made a day or two in advance

Equipment

• Small saucepan
• 9”x5”x2 ½” deep, loaf tin
• Clingfilm

Shopping List

• 3 Large bell peppers, red orange and yellow
• 1 Large aubergine (eggplant)
• 2 Large courgettes (zucchini)
• 4 Tbsp Olive oil
• Rock salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 15 fl oz Passata
• 2 Tbsp Gelatine

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