Roast chicken dinner
(at time of publication)
Instructions
Step 1 Preheat oven to 180ºC. Remove excess fat from chicken. Rub skin with crushed garlic. Fill cavity with herbs and lemon pieces, or make stuffing (see below). Place in oven bag. Tie bag. Pierce to let the steam out. Place in an oven dish.
Step 2 Cook for about 1 hour 40 minutes or until juices run clear when chicken breast is pierced.
Step 3 Remove from oven, rest for 5 minutes. Cut a corner off the bag and allow juices to empty into a jug. Remove skin before serving chicken.
With stuffing
Step 4 In a bowl, combine all stuffing ingredients. Fill chicken cavity and cook as above.
Garlic roast vegetables
Step 5 Place vegetables in an ovenproof roasting dish. Mix flavour ingredients and stir through vegetables.
Step 6 Cook at 180ºC until tender. Small chunks take about 30 minutes, bigger chunks, longer.
Healthy gravy
Step 7 Place juice in a small saucepan with flour and mustard. Mix well.
Step 8 Slowly add stock and cook until thickened. Season to taste. If lumpy, strain before serving.
Traditional roast chicken dinner
Total energy per serve 3420kJ
Total fat per serve 51g (18g saturated fat)
HFG roast chicken dinner
Total energy per serve 2320kJ
Total fat per serve 25g (7g saturated fat)
Variations
*Fat-free cooking juice
You can freeze fat-free cooking juice and use it as stock or in gravy.
Step 1 Refrigerate cooking juice from chicken in a jug or bowl. The fat will sit on the juice's surface.
Step 2 Separate fat from the liquid using a fat separator. This has a spout at the base of the vessel (available through kitchen shops). Or pour slightly cooled juices into a strong plastic bag, snip a tiny piece off the corner and allow stock to pour out. Stop pouring before fat comes out.
HFG Tip
To make your roast chicken dinner healthy
- Use oven bags to keep chicken moist without added fat. Drain juice and save for gravy (remove fat first).
- Increase flavour with garlic, fresh herbs or lemon. Or make a stuffing.
- Remove skin before serving – most of the fat is found under the skin. A lot of this fat melts through the chicken and into the juices during cooking but there is still a significant amount that clings to the skin.
- Cook lots of vegetables. Leave skin on where possible, spray or brush with oil and cook separately from the chicken. To shorten cooking time, partly cook first in boiling water and drain thoroughly before roasting.
- Make gravy the low-fat way. Juices that collect in an oven bag can have up to 100g fat. If the juices are used as they are to make gravy, that's an extra 10-25g of mostly saturated fat per serve.
About this Recipe
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- Chicken
- 1 size 16 chicken
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- bunch fresh herbs, chopped
- 1 lemon, cut in quarters
- 1 medium oven bag
- Stuffing
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 2 cups fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
- rind of 1/2 lemon, grated
- 1 teaspoon dried basil or oregano
- 3 tablespoons slivered almonds or pine nuts
- 1 egg
- 50g bacon or ham (optional)
- Healthy roast vegetables
- 4-6 cups vegetables – we used kumara, onion, pumpkin, parsnip, yam, potato and beetroot
- Garlic roast vegetables
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
- herbs, fresh or dried
- Honey and balsamic roast vegetables
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Healthy gravy
- 3 tablespoons fat-free juice*
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 2 cups chicken stock (if you have extra fat-free juice, use this and make up to stock amount)
Nutritional information (per serve)
Nutrition information is given per serve
*NS: not specified
