Million-dollar chicken
Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Maja Smend
Million-dollar chicken
At first glance, this might look like any other roast chicken… but there’s a hidden bonus of sourdough bread slices underneath, which absorb the roasting juices and a smoky crème fraîche sauce. Dig in!
Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
784Kcal
Fat
49gr
Saturates
25gr
Carbs
20gr
Sugars
4gr
Fibre
2gr
Protein
66gr
Salt
1gr
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Ingredients
- a whole chicken (about 1.6kg), preferably free-range
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 slices sourdough bread
- 3 lemons
- a few thyme sprigs
- a few sage or rosemary sprigs
- 1 small onion, halved
- 4 garlic cloves, bashed
- 1 shallot
- 300ml full-fat crème fraîche
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 15g finely grated Parmesan
- watercress, to serve
Step by step
- Remove the chicken from the fridge at least 30 minutes before roasting, to come to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Drizzle a little of the oil into a roasting tin (one that is only a little bit larger than the chicken), add the sliced sourdough and drizzle with about 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Season the chicken generously, inside and out. Halve one of the lemons and squeeze the juice into the cavity. Stuff the lemon shells, herbs, onion and garlic inside then sit the chicken on top of the bread. Drizzle the bird with the rest of the oil and roast for 1 hour.
- While the chicken is roasting, grate the zest from the second lemon into a bowl and squeeze in the juice. Finely grate in the shallot, so that it’s essentially puréed, and mix in the crème fraîche, smoked paprika and seasoning. Put half in a small pan for the sauce; the rest will be used for basting.
- When the chicken has roasted for an hour and the legs can be wiggled around a bit rather than feeling inflexible, brush all over with half the basting sauce; it will thin down when it hits the hot chicken and run down onto the bread, which is just what you want to happen. Add the third lemon, halved, to the roasting tin. Roast for another 10 minutes, glaze again then roast for 5 minutes. Scatter over the Parmesan and roast for a final 5 minutes.
- Leave to rest for 15 minutes, and garnish with fresh herbs, if you like. Heat through the crème fraîche sauce in the pan for 1-2 minutes. Carve the chicken and divide up the roasted bread from underneath (don’t worry if this is looking dark; it will have absorbed all the roasting juices and is utterly delicious). Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and serve with watercress, plus extra vegetables of your choice (new potatoes are good with this).
