An Easy and Impressive Roast Dinner

Roast chicken is one of the easiest dinners to cook and it is something almost everyone enjoys. It needs very little accompaniment, aside from some fluffy mashed potatoes, gravy and fresh vegetables or a crisp salad. For an easy meal to impress just about anyone when you are just getting started in the kitchen, roast chicken is definitely your best bet.


It is such an easy meal. You could literally just put the chicken in the oven and you would still get something lovely to eat, but with a tiny bit of what you can hardly even call effort you can end up with something really special. All you need is a lemon and some fresh herbs, either from your garden, farmer’s market or even the grocery store. As you can see from the photograph above, I like to use thyme, parsley and rosemary. I cut the very top off the lemon to expose the flesh of the fruit.


The most important thing to do is to choose a good chicken - and by that I mean one that has been ethically and humanely raised - either pasture raised, free range or organic. Please don’t buy intensively farmed chicken - you are better off not eating meat, rather than eating meat that has been intensively farmed.

You need to pre-heat your oven to about 375℉ (180℃ - or 170℃ for a fan oven). Most chickens come without giblets these days, and they no longer recommend washing chickens because of the risk of salmonella contamination of sinks and worktops, so really all you need to do is take the chicken out of any packaging and place it on a roasting dish. Then push the herbs up inside the chicken and then the lemon. Rub a little piece of butter over the skin of the bird or drizzle a little oil over top and then liberally season it with salt and pepper. Be sure to thoroughly wash your hands after doing this.

Pop the chicken in the oven and cook for an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the size of the chicken. I often cook two chickens side by side on a baking sheet at the same time as you can make such lovely things from the leftovers. Keep an eye on it and start to check it when the skin begins to turn golden brown. I use a thermometer to tell when the chicken is done. When you stick it in the thigh meat it should read at least 180℃ (a little over 350℉) and the juices running from the thigh meat should be clear. If the skin seems to be getting rather too golden, and the meat isn’t cooking fast enough, turn the temperature down a bit and/or cover the chicken with aluminum foil  (shiny side out).

When the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and cover with fresh aluminum foil. Allow to rest for ten to twenty minutes. This lets the juices settle inside the meat, so that when you cut into it they don’t all run away. Now all you have to do is find someone nice to carve it for you, or try it yourself - it really isn’t as hard as you might think. Just be careful and use a very sharp knife. (There are lots of instructional videos on carving on the internet.)

And that is it, an easy, impressive roast dinner in less than two hours in the kitchen! While the chicken is cooking you have plenty of time to peel, cook and mash some potatoes with butter, milk and salt and pepper and either lightly cook some vegetables or throw together a crisp salad. Oh, and make some gravy. And then you are done!


If you are feeling nervous about plating everything up, just serve it all country style on the table so everyone can help themselves, although it is good to use an electric hot plate to keep everything warm if you are going to do this. Anyone can make a delicious hot roast dinner! Don’t let anyone tell you it is difficult or intimidating, because as you can see from this post, it truly isn’t!