roast chicken

Roast Chicken in a Clay Pot
On Saturdays,my grandmother would make a chicken on the rotisserie. I think chickens tasted better long ago, we had peas and new potatoes, oh and gravy. Her stuffing was wonderful and none of us have ever been able to reproduce it. Perhaps it was the sea which gave the magic to it all, but I have searched for this taste of roast chicken for years. My mother would use a clay pot to roast the chicken, it is very very close to the taste I search for.............and easy to do. That’s if you have a clay pot. I’ve given up trying to regain the stuffing taste....

Ingredients

Whole chicken for roasting
6 rashers bacon
1 lemon
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Immerse the clay pot in a sink of cold water for a good 15 minutes before baking.
Wash the chicken inside and out with cold water. Remove giblets, neck and liver from inside the cavity.
Pour a handful of salt into the palm of your hand and generously shake pepper over the salt. Rub the inside of the chicken with the salt and pepper.
Pierce the lemon with a fork all over the skin and place the lemon inside the cavity.
Pour another handful of salt and generous shakes of pepper into your hand and rub all over the outside of the chicken.
Divide the butter into three blobs and put on top of the chicken, then cover with 6 rashers of bacon so that the bacon is draped all over the breast.
Place the chicken in the clay pot and put in cold oven covered.
Turn the oven to 350 degrees F
The chicken is generally done after 2 hours.
Very moist and most tasty.

If you don’t have a clay pot, you can rub the chicken all over with oil, then the salt and pepper, the butter and some bacon. Place in hot oven at 350 degrees F. uncovered, keep basting every 20 minutes.
As a rule, it needs 20 minutes to the pound.