Roast chicken for two... in one pan

When it comes to winter Sundays, I'm a bit of a traditionalist. In the summer, my Sunday repertoire varies wildly, embracing a range of culinary traditions and experiments, but in the winter I am dreadfully dull and am inevitably drawn towards a roast dinner or something vaguely akin. The trouble is partly that I can get bored of a rotation of roasts and partly - if I am honest, more than partly - sometimes we run around like headless chickens on Sundays and I can't face spending so long in the kitchen in the evening making all the trimmings, with the oven blasting away. Also Sunday is designated Baking Day so sometimes the oven is in double demand and the kitchen begins to bear too much resemblance to an inferno. I am always looking for twists on the traditional roast dinner - different flavours or methods, and particularly alternative gravy recipes - just to ring the changes a bit (and to convince myself that I'm not stuck in a culinary rut).

The roast chicken for two recipe from Jo Pratt fits the above requirements: traditional(ish), but a different gravy (with sherry, honey and cream) and chicken plus veggies cooked in one roasting tray. The recipe involves parboiling new potatoes, draining them, and scattering them with some peeled shallots around a small chicken in a roasting tray, then roasting for an hour or so. The chicken is rubbed with garlic and lemon and then garlic cloves and rosemary are scattered around it with a couple of lemon quarters; the other lemon quarters are stuffed into the bird. I didn't use a small chicken because we like to have lots of meat leftover for sandwiches for the week, so I started the chicken off before adding the vegetables. When the chicken is cooked, remove the chicken and potatoes and keep warm; meanwhile, throw away the garlic, rosemary and lemon, add sherry and honey to the tray over the hob, deglaze, add chicken stock and frozen peas and simmer until the peas are cooked, then add double cream.


I was worried that the potatoes would absorb too much chicken juices and turn out squelchy rather than crunchy, but that wasn't the case; they were delicious. The gravy was delicious too - you could taste the sherry, in a good way. And best of all, it was quick. I have a bit of a thing for roast chicken; I love the crunchy skin and the tender meat inside. When I was little, my Nana used to come to our house on Tuesday and leave on Wednesday evening and she often roasted a chicken. Roast chicken was the comfort food of my childhood and it still works a bit of magic now. I could probably have roast chicken every Sunday, but I would feel that I was getting stuck in a rut; that said, there are much worse ruts that one could get stuck in!