Jamie Oliver's Roast Chicken

I made Jamie's Roast Chicken for supper tonight:


We saw it in yesterday's Toronto Star.

About 4-pound/2-kilogram chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lemon, washed
1 garlic bulb, broken into unpeeled cloves
Handful of fresh thyme
Olive oil
3/4 cup dry white wine or chicken stock

Rub chicken with salt and pepper inside and out. (Do this in the morning, if possible, then cover and refrigerate until ready to roast.)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Bring medium saucepan of salted water to boil. Add lemon and garlic. Reduce heat to low; simmer 12 minutes. While lemon is still hot, poke holes in it with skewer.

Pat chicken dry with paper towels; rub with olive oil. Stuff lemon, garlic and thyme into cavity. Place on wire rack in roasting pan. Roast in oven about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until meat is cooked through. Near end of roasting time, pour wine or chicken stock into roasting pan around chicken; continue to roast.

Remove lemon, garlic and thyme from chicken. Squeeze garlic all over it; discard skins. Serve with pan juices.

Makes about 4 to 6 servings.

It was very moist and not overpowering with the lemon or thyme.

To accompany it, we had the wine Sister Sarah gave me for Christmas ...

... a chardonnay from Jost Vineyards in Nova Scotia (Sister Sarah lives in Halifax, NS).

Since it's a chardonnay, we were expecting it to be oaky but it wasn't. It was a bit tart but tasty.