"Fill your home with the aroma of a slow-roasting chicken, garlic cloves, red onion. Perfect comfort food for a rainy day. This is a simple recipe which I hope you enjoy it as much I did creating it!" Photojournalist, Saidia Zaloski
Simple Slow Roasted Chicken with rice and garlic
Serves 2-4
Baste this baby every 20 mins once it has been in the oven for a good hour. Surely, once it is cooked it will be falling off the bone like some succulent disaster.
Replace rosemary, basil with whichever herb you like! This recipe is very versatile, use whatever type of rice you have and I’m sure it will be amazing!
We welcome comments on alterations down below!
What you’ll need:
- Roasting/ Frying pan -ensure it is safe for the oven, no plastic etc.
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 cup of risotto rice (add another cup for more people.)
- 1 cup of water (add another cup for more people.)
- 1 and half heads of garlic
- 1 red onion
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 1/2 a lemon
- handful of basil leaves (1 tsp of dried herb)
- 2 sticks of fresh rosemary
- Salt to taste
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 300 F/ 150 C
- Rinse the chicken with cold water, flush out the inside and clear out the kidneys and gizzards.
- Place the chicken in the frying pan, and slide your fingers underneath the skin, separating it around the breasts and thighs.
- Slice the lemon, wash the herbs and crush half a head of garlic cloves. Slide these, and the butter under the skin.
- Rub excess butter on top of the skin, or drizzle a tiny spot of olive oil.
- Set the chicken in the oven and set a timer for 50 minutes. At that time, start basting every 20 mins.
- The longer you let it roast, the better it will be! I believe 3 hours would be an ample amount of time, but aim for five hours. The chicken will be cooked when juices run clear.
- While roasting, cut onions into quarters and peel the rest of your garlic.
- After hours have passed, and you believe you are an hour away from serving dinner- Shift the chicken to one side of the pan without damaging it. Where the broth lays, pour in your rice and mix. Slide the chicken back into it’s position, and on the empty side dump all of the garlic and onion you have left.
- Let roast for another 20 mins, before adding the cup of water to the rice. By the end of those 5 hours, whomever you are preparing this for will be seriously impressed.
