This chicken with wild garlic and lemon is my first true spring recipe on my blog.
My home is the place I love most of all. I particularly get this feeling when I come home from a holiday. Today is such a day. I’ve just returned from a one-week holiday in Italy. I had a wonderful time, lots of fun and did so many exciting things.
But yet, as soon as I opened the door of my house, smelled the familiar scent and my cat welcomed me with a scolding meow, I knew that this is the place I feel most comfortable in. All of a sudden, it is such a pleasure to feel the water of my own shower hailing down on my skin, to envelop myself in my own bed sheets and to drink my own tap water. And when I finally walk into my beloved garden my happiness seems to be complete. Home sweet home.
Don’t get me wrong, I utterly enjoyed being away, eating all this delicious Italian food and yet, I am looking forward to cooking my own meals again.
The first dish I wanted to cook for you is a chicken with wild garlic and lemon. I love herbs so much and I equally adore chicken. So here we are, a simple spring recipe for you and for me.
I got the wild garlic and the buttercups in the photos from our local nursery and green grocer. They have a huge vegetable garden where they grow all kinds of vegetables and herbs all year round and this wild garlic was found in one corner of their vast garden. Delicious!
Chicken with Wild Garlic and Lemon
Serves 3-4
4 tablespoons chopped wild garlic
some wild garlic leaves
2 tablespoons soft butter
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 lemon
1 whole chicken
800 g (1 3/4 lb) potatoes
2 tablespoons oil
salt
Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F).
Combine the chopped wild garlic, 2 tablespoons butter, sea salt and the grated zest of the lemon with a fork. Carefully wash the chicken and use some kitchen paper to pat dry. At the chicken breasts, carefully separate the skin from the meat by slowly inserting your fingers between the skin and the meat. The skin must not come off completely, it must only be lifted enough to be able to spread the butter-wild garlic mixture between the skin and the meat. Also rub the inside of the chicken with the mixture. Cut the lemon in quarters and wrap 1-2 wild garlic leaves around each quarter and put them into the chicken. Put the chicken (breasts up) into an ovenproof dish.
Halve or quarter the potatoes, combine them with some olive oil and salt and put them around the chicken in the ovenproof dish.
Roast in the preheated oven for about 1 hour 30 minutes. The meat should have a core temperature of 80°-85°C (175°-185°F) and the potatoes should be done.
Serve with some green salad.
Here is the recipe for printing:
- 4 tablespoons chopped wild garlic
- some wild garlic leaves
- 2 tablespoons soft butter
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 lemon
- 1 whole chicken
- 800 g (1 3/4 lb) potatoes
- 2 tablespoons oil
- salt
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F).
- Combine the chopped wild garlic, 2 tablespoons butter, sea salt and the grated zest of the lemon with a fork. Carefully wash the chicken and use some kitchen paper to pat dry. At the chicken breasts, carefully separate the skin from the meat by slowly inserting your fingers between the skin and the meat. The skin must not come off completely, it must only be lifted enough to be able to spread the butter-wild garlic mixture between the skin and the meat. Also rub the inside of the chicken with the mixture. Cut the lemon in quarters and wrap 1-2 wild garlic leaves around each quarter and put them into the chicken. Put the chicken (breasts up) into an ovenproof dish.
- Halve or quarter the potatoes, combine them with some olive oil and salt and put them around the chicken in the ovenproof dish.
- Roast in the preheated oven for about 1 hour 30 minutes. The meat should have a core temperature of 80°-85°C (175°-185°F) and the potatoes should be done.
- Serve with some green salad.
Enjoy!
All the best, Simone
