Name: Lemon Thyme Chicken
Ingredients: Prices are based on woolworths' prices unless otherwise stated. Prices are correct on the 5/11/14; - a whole chicken (home brand $4.99/kg or steggles family roast $5.52/kg or macro free range $7.35/kg); - about a 1/2 tbs (8 good sprigs) of lemon thyme leaves (i buy it from bunnings and grow herbs on my kitchen window simply because it looks cool and some herbs aren?t sold in supermarkets) ($3.99 - latest bunnings price) normal thyme is ok too. (little fact: lemon thyme can also help keep mozzies at bay); - 2-3 tbs of butter (real butter is best but substitutes work as well) ($1.39); - 1 lemon ($1 each max); - only about 1-2 tbs olive oil (250ml/$4.50 or home brand 500ml/$5.04 or select 1l/$10.74) ? also just thought to make it easier to apply, you could put the oil in a spray bottle instead of the method outlined in the procedure.; - plain flour (optional) (home brand 1kg/$0.75); - salt (i prefer grinned himalayan pink salt) (home brand table salt/$0.96, or himalayan pink salt in grinder/$5.91 ? $0.62/10g); - butchers twine/string (butchers twine 100m/$5.91); sides to match (estimated price $5 for sides); -fave veggies; -mashed potato; -roast veggies; -potato salad; for the next day - chicken and mayo sandwiches :); sorry for the verbal diarrhoea

Step 1:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºc, fan forced

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2. Clean inside and outside of chicken and pat dry with paper towel

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3. Strip the lemon thyme leaves off the sprigs into a bowl with butter. Squeeze half a lemon into the bowl. Mix/squish together with a spoon.

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4. (this is the hard part because you don?t want to break the skin). Use your fingers to separate the breast and leg skin from the meat, but you want to keep it attached – basically you are making a pocket. Easiest access point is the back end of the breast.

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5. Now you a going to carefully spoon the butter mixture into the pocket you just made (under the skin). Then using your fingers, massage the mixture to spread it evenly around the breast and the legs.

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6. Stick the un-squeezed half of the lemon the the cavity – then using butches twine (or just string that you have) cross the legs over and tie them up to close the cavity.

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7. Pat dry the top of the skin again with paper towel, and then spread a thin layer of olive oil over the skin. (option – sprinkle flour over the skin – this makes it crispy) then season with salt.

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8. Place on baking try and sit it in the oven. As a general rule, cooking time is about 30 minutes per 500g at 180ºc. To check it it is cooked, you can place a skewer through the thickest part of the thigh. If the juices run completely clear then the chicken is cooked. Or you could just cut into the thigh for a visual look (thats what i do)

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happy eating 🙂

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don?t forget to rate and comment.

Lemon Thyme Chicken

Ingredients

Instructions