Spring Chicken with Wild Garlic Butter Recipe

Ingredients

1.7kg whole chicken
50g wild garlic
1 garlic bulb
100g butter, room temperature
1 lemon
8 shallots
250ml white wine or chicken stock

Prep: 20 mins + resting | Cook: 1 hr 30 mins

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Method

1. Remove the chicken from the fridge and unwrap it. Place in a roasting tin. Take out the giblets (keep them for making a stock or gravy later). Leave the chicken to come to room temperature. Heat your oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6.

2. Finely chop the wild garlic leaves and place in a bowl. Pull a garlic clove from the bulb. Peel and finely grate it into the bowl. Add the softened butter and finely grate in the zest from the lemon. Add plenty of salt and pepper. Mix together till combined and vivid green.

3. Using your fingers, or the end of a wooden spoon, lift the skin from the chicken breast, taking care not to tear the skin. Place half of the butter under the skin and massage in.

4. Halve the garlic bulb and the lemon and insert them into the chicken's cavity.

5. Arrange the unpeeled shallots around the chicken. Loosely cover the chicken with foil, scrunching the foil onto the tin to seal. Roast for 45 mins.

6. Take the chicken out of the oven and pour 250ml white wine or chicken stock into the tin. Cover with foil again and roast for a further 30 mins. After the chicken has cooked for 1 hour 15 mins, remove the foil. Baste it with the juices in the tin. Dot over the remaining butter and place back into the oven, uncovered for 15 mins.

7. The chicken should be cooked through. Check by inserting a knife or skewer into the leg. The juices should run clear. If they are pink, slide back into the oven for 10 mins or till the juices are clear.

8. Lift the chicken and shallots out of the dish and pop on a board. Remove the garlic and lemon. Cover the chicken with a loose tent of foil and leave to rest for 30 mins.

9. Serve slices of the buttery wild garlic chicken with the juices from the pan spooned over. Add a squeeze of the roasted lemon too, if you like, and serve with the roast shallots.