17 March 2014

Plate Up. Flossie's Roast Chicken

There's a story behind this very special roast chicken and it comes from a delightful lady named Flossie. The other week I came across a cooking show that was filmed in the early 90s; The People's Cookbook. On this particular episode was a darling little old British lady named Flossie who was sharing her recipe for roast chicken. She was so humble and I think very chuffed that she had come up with this chicken recipe herself which she was sharing on national television. The footage showed her cooking it in her farm house in country England where her kitchen had stone walls and a delightfully vintage Aga stove. Her recipe created a beautifully moist and browned chicken which I simply had to try making for myself.


What you'll need
1 chicken
1 teaspoon vegemite (or marmite)
1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch of fresh thyme
a little butter
a little olive oil
boiling water

What to do
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Wash and prepare your chicken for roasting. Get a large baking tray which has a raised rack (or you can put in a cooling cake rack) and place the chicken on top. It should be up off the bottom of the tray.

Gently pull the skin away from the chicken at the breast until you have a good pocket and squeeze your lemon inside. Then spread the vegemite over the chicken covering the breast, legs and wings. Gently bruise your garlic cloves and put them inside the cavity of the chicken along with some sprigs on thyme. Crumble a few remaining leaves over the top of the chicken. Finish off by placing teaspoon sized dollops of butter on the legs and wings and drizzle lightly with olive oil.


Poor the boiling water around the chicken so it fills the base of the tray; it should be about an inch deep. Roast in the oven until cooked (generally 20 minutes cooking time plus an extra 20 minutes for every 450g of chicken, e.g., a 900g chicken would take an hour).

Serve with your favourite roasted veggies.

Image via UKTV

Flossie I hope you're up there watching because I love your chicken and am sure everyone else will too.

Photos by Krissie.