Roast Chicken Dinner

A sublime English Roast Dinner, fit for a king! English cooking of this type is all about timing. When it comes to cooking up those english 'Sunday Lunches' the key principle to success is knowing how long everything takes and timing it all right. As with any cooking, knowing these details really only comes with experience, such as how long a potato takes to boil compared to a parsnip or a carrot.

For those who have never cooked a traditional Roast Dinner before and have always wanted to give it a go, I have broken the recipe down into steps, hopefully making it clearer for you to see how everything progresses, to the final plating up.

Chicken:
1 Roasting chicken (small Chicken will feed 4-5 people at most)
..plus an onion or two for added flavour
salt and pepper
plus roasting tin or baking tray large enough for the bird

Vegetables:
(Depending on what vegetables you like, you will do well if you have about 3 or 4 different vegetables, even more if you like.) Here's a rough guide to how many vegetables you might need.
Parsnips - 1 medium per person
Potato - 1 medium per person
Carrot - 1 medium per person
Brussel Sprouts - 3 to 5 per person (we like brussel sprouts)
Green Beans - say 5 or 6 per person
Cabbage - about 1/8 of a medium per person
..and so on.
Gravy (instant gravy granules) 

Pots for boiling.
You can boil each the vegetables separately, or to save space, Carrots, Potatoes and Parsnips can be boiled together in one big pot and Green beans and Cabbage cooked together in another.

TOP TIP
Timing a Roasting Chicken:
Roasting a chicken takes about 20mins for every 1lb in weight that the chicken weighs. I bought a small chicken which took 1 hour in total to roast. (The butcher called it a 'Tandoor' chicken).

Step 1:
Begin by first preparing the root vegetables, i.e. the parsnips, potatoes and carrots. Wash and peel, then cutting into halves or quarters. Cover with fresh water and a pinch of salt.

Root Vegetables - Potatoes, Parsnips and carrots

Wash and peel root veggies

Cut root veggies into halves or quarters

Veggies in pot of lightly salted water

Step 2:
Prepare green vegetables, such as brussel sprouts, green beans and cabbage.
Below are pics showing you how to clean and prepare Brussel Sprouts. First wash, then cut off the base of the sprout and peel away the outer layers of leaves which may have dirt and grime on them. Place in pot, give them a quick rinse, then refill pot with clean fresh water and a pinch of salt. Boil till tender to knife point, approximately 7-10 minutes.

Green Veggies - Brussel Sprouts & Cabbage

Cutting base of Brussel Sprout to remove dirty layers of leaves

Notice the difference? Left before, and Right after being cleaned

Brussel Sprouts prepared and ready to cook

Step 3:
Clean and wash the chicken thoroughly. Place in a roasting tin or baking tray. Sprinkle generously with pepper and salt. You can add a couple of peeled and halved onions inside the chicken and around the baking tray. Set your oven to Gas Mark 4 or 5 and place chicken in the middle of the oven. Please remember to wear oven gloves when changing oven shelves. 
NOTE: Adjust a second oven shelf to go at the top of the oven, above the chicken. This is where you will be placing your tray of root vegetables for roasting.

Chicken cleaned and seasoned, ready for roasting

Place vegetables on hob to cook

Step 4:
Once the chicken is in the oven, we now have at least an hour to wait.
Begin by boiling the root vegetables till tender to the knife point, roughly about 8-12 minutes. Once the root vegetables are done, carefully place in a colander and allow all water to drain. (Its OK if some of the vegetables look a bit mashed, as this makes them crispier once roasted.) Place into another baking tray making sure they are spaced out and have contact with the base of the tray. Drizzle over about 4 or 5 tbls cooking oil (can be Olive Oil, or vegetable oil...anything you prefer to cook with). Give the pan a shake to spread the oil around.
Place the tray on the top oven shelf, and cook for the remainder of the time left for the chicken, or 30-40 minutes, turning vegetables after every 20 mins. Bake till golden browned and crispy.

Boiled root vegetables, in baking tray, drizzled with oil.

Remove halfway during cooking to turn and shake tray

Step 5:
Halfway through cooking the Chicken, remove from the oven and carefully, using a couple of forks, turn the chicken over. Carry on cooking till it nears the end time of cooking. You can check to see if the chicken is cooked by piercing the deepest part of the chicken breast with a skewer. Some juice will start to pour out. If it runs clear, then the chicken should be done, if it is a little pink still, it means it still needs extra cooking.

Step 6:
Cook green vegetables. In the last 15 minutes begin to boil the Brussel Sprouts. Cook till tender, approximately 10 minutes. At the same time, cook the green beans and roughly chopped cabbage.

Boiled Brussel Sprouts

Cooked green beans and cabbage together

Step 7:

To make the gravy, you can follow the instructions on the pot as to how much water is needed to how many spoons for granules. But, one important note, is you can use some of the vegetable water, used to cook the vegetables to make up the amount of water needed for your gravy. It will taste better, and it makes use of the vitamins are in the water.

Step 8:
Its time to plate up! woohoo.
(I get excited at this point, because everything always looks so deliciously appetizing, especially when the final touches are added, i.e. the hot steamy gravy.