chicken little.

so it began, my once-a-month cookout with my new oven.
my dad has tasked me to cook for the family once a month since he is not the expert of ang-moh food.

enter the little 'dragon'.

so for the first session of karen's great cookout, i did a surprisingly simple roast chicken with roasted garlic mash potatoes and a herb mushroom sauce.

the chicken sitting in the oven. yummers.

recipe after the jump.

Roast Chicken ala Karen

(serves 4 - 6)

For the chicken

• One 2.5kg Chicken - gutted and cleaned
• Fresh / Dried Thyme - 2 sprigs / 2 tablespoons
  
• Fresh / Dried Rosemary leaves - 2 tablespoons
  
• 2 Lemons - sliced into halves
  
• 5 cloves of Garlic - skin removed
  
• 2 cups of Chicken Broth
• Medley of veggies - carrots, celery, onions and tomatoes (use as much as you like) - chopped into pieces
  
• Olive oil
• Salt 
• Black Pepper
  

For the roasted garlic mash potatoes

• 5 - 6 good sized Russet or American Potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into quarters
• 1 - 2 cups of chicken broth
• 5 cloves of Garlic
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of butter
• Salt
• Black Pepper

For the herb & mushroom sauce

• 1 can of button mushrooms
• Dried Thyme - 2 table spoons
• Basil - 2 tablespoons
• Leftover chicken juices from the roasted chicken
• Rosemary - 2 tablespoons

Now, the hard part:

Prepare the marinade:

1. squeeze 2 lemons, crush the garlic and add in the thyme and rosemary into a bowl
2. Coat the chicken with the marinade thoroughly.
3. Take the halves of the lemon that you squeezed the juice from and put them into the cavity of the chicken (shove as many as you, i managed 2 halves)
4. If you used fresh thyme, put the sprigs into the cavity as well. if you used dried herbs, then dash another tablespoon of thyme and rosemary into the cavity
5. dash some salt and pepper and rub it onto the chicken (all over)
   
6. let the chicken sit, breast down in the marinade for about half an hour.

Prepare the pan for roasting:

1. into a roasting pan, lay all the veggies.
2. pour 2 cups of chicken broth into the pan. you don't need to cover the veggies

Roasting time:

1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC
   
2. Place chicken onto the bed of veggies. Gently tuck the wing tips under the chicken as well.
   
3. Pour remaining marinade onto the chicken
4. Pour a generous amount of olive oil and rub it onto the chicken. this will help brown the bird
5. Into the oven it goes! 220ºC for 20 minutes then 200ºC for 40 minutes.
6. To check if the chicken is done, just use a skewer and poke the thigh (thickest part of the bird). If the juices run clear and the skewer goes in with ease, it is done!

Garlic Roasted Mash Potatoes

1. Boil all the quarter potatoes in a pot of water until they are very soft (i.e a fork through it will crumble it.)
2. Drain the potatoes and place them into a bowl
3. With a masher or fork, gently mash them while they are still hot. 
4. Add in 2 tablespoons of butter and mash
5. Add in the chicken broth, a little at a time until you get the consistency that you like.
6. Go over to your roasted chicken and find the bits of garlic that were roasting in it as well. if you didn't roast the garlic, simple toast some crushed garlic in the oven until you can smell the aroma (or pop them into the microwave for about 20 secs on high)
7. chop the garlic up into small pieces and mash them into the potatoes
8. Salt and pepper to taste.

Herb & Mushroom sauce

1. Reserve some of the preservative juice that was in the canned mushroom.
2. Now, extract the juices from the chicken that was roasting. pour them into a bowl
3. Add in the mushrooms 
4. Add in 2 tablespoons of preservatives (If the liquid is too little, stir in some chicken broth)
   
5. Add in all the spices.
6. Blend them all together (roughly).

And there you have it, simply done in less that 2 hours.
(sorry, i was too excited and didn't even take a photo! but the food was delish, trust my nephew.)