Adelaide Hayes' Blog: Healthy, simple and scrumptious, try this roasted lemon chicken in au jus

For majority of us, one of our resolutions is to go on a healthy diet and reduce weight. The recipe today consists of roast chicken, balanced with a few simple ingredients with hardly any oil added. Along with mint lemonade that I’ve named ‘Le-Mint’, it complements the dish and leaves us feeling refreshed.

So let’s get on it, shall we?

For starters, you will have to marinade the chicken.

Ingredients:

Lime juice – 50 ml

Honey – 1 tbsp

Thyme – 2 tsp (finely chopped or use dry thyme)

Rosemary – 2 tsp (finely chopped or use dry rosemary)

Salt – adjust to taste

Ground pepper – adjust to taste

Lime – 1 (large and sliced)

Method:

Combine all the ingredients together and marinade the chicken for five hours. Place the sliced lime between the skin and the meat, preferably near the thigh and breast area.

Now let’s move on to the roasting.

Ingredients:

Onion – 1 (medium, sliced)

Carrot – 1 (sliced)

Garlic cloves – 3 (medium)

Chicken Stock – 1 cup

Unsalted butter – 2 tbsp (1 tbsp melted to rub on the pan before roasting, and 1 tbsp cold to put small portions in the skin of the chicken)

Method:

1. Brush the roasting pan with butter.

2. Add the whole chicken and the rest of the ingredients in the pan. Cover the pan with foil, and oven bake for about 30 minutes. Every oven has a different setting, so keep checking on the chicken.

3. Take out the pan from the oven and pan fry for glazing. The aim is to get that beautiful brown colour on the skin.

Let’s move to the au jus now, shall we?

Ingredients:

Chicken bones (neck, wings, leg)

Onion – ¼ (chopped)

Garlic – 2 (chopped)

Cloves – 3

Coriander – handful

Chicken stock – 1 cup (200ml)

Fennel – 1 Pinch

Thyme and Rosemary – 1 tsp (dry)

Worcestershire sauce – 1 tsp

Vinegar – 1 tsp

Lime juice – 2 tsp

Butter – 30 gms

Corn flour – 1 pinch

Method:

1. Cook all the above ingredients in a pan on low heat for two hours and reduce to a thick gravy-like texture (the jus).

2. Steam some fresh veggies and roast some potatoes

3. Serve the jus along with the dish or pour on top of the roast chicken just before serving. I prefer to serve it with the gravy separately, leaving the choice of quantity as per preference. Sprinkle some sea salt on the roast chicken before serving.