Anne's Simple Roast Chicken

My lovely mother in law, Anne (pictured below), taught me this easy, simple and delicious roast chicken recipe. Her roast chicken doesn't need to be seasoned (the dish is served with traditional Gravox gravy sauce) and there is no additional oil required when roasting. Picking a small chicken (about 500 grams) means that it only takes half an hour for dinner to be cooked. Rule of thumb for roasting meat is to roast every 500 gram for half an hour (1 kg of meat = 1 hour roasting).

Anne teaching me how to roast

Ingredients:

• 1 small chicken (about 500 gram)
• Root vegetables: e.g. potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, carrots ~ cut to even small sizes
• Frozen peas
• Gravox traditional gravy powder

Method:

1. Heat the oven on fan force to 180 degrees celsius
2. Place the whole chicken in the middle of a baking tray, breast side down and the root vegetables surrounding it
3. Roast chicken & veggies in the oven for 15 minutes, then take out the tray, scoop out any excess oil, turn the chicken (the breast side is up) and the root vegetables, roast for another 15 minutes. 
4. The small chicken and root vegetables should be cooked now. Take the whole tray out and transfer chicken and root veggies onto a cutting board. Don't throw out the meat juice in the tray. Cover chicken & root veggies with aluminium foil to keep warm while we make the gravy
5. To make gravy, place the baking tray on the stove on medium heat. Sprinkle a few table spoons of Gravox and half a cup of water. Keep stirring and wait for the water to boil. Cook the gravy to the desired consistency. Serve in a gravy jug.
6. Cook peas in boiling water at the same time as the gravy.
7. Carve the chicken and serve. 

Tips: Heating up the plates in the microwave will keep the dishes warm when served.