My beautiful sister is the intelligent brains behind this!! This is by far the most simple roast chicken recipe anyone could make and great news is.. it doesn’t require any brain power but patience! Initially we would have also used rosemary but there was none to be found so thyme it twas.

1. CHICKEN SELECTION: I recommend  a good cut of chicken. In this case we used Free Range Chicken!  Make sure you clean it and cut off unwanted bad fats.

2. MARINATE: Shred  thyme into a bowl and mix with butter. Smear between skin and chicken breast for flavour. Stuff chicken with cut  lemon and more thyme. Finally, use thyme twigs to keep the flavours in (see below)

3. SEASONING: Crush peppercorn and salt flakes (do not over crush as its nice to leave some texture). Once this is done, rub chicken with  olive oil and add the seasoning for flavour and a golden finish.

4. OVEN: Pour a bit of olive oil in the baking tray and place chopped parsnips around the chicken for caramalisation. Place in oven for 200ºc and cover with foil to keep moisture in.

THE RESULT
Golden brown moist chicken. Not sure what happened to the skin it fell off during the cutting process. Still looks gold yo!

PARSNIPS
Took parsnips out of the tray during the cooking process of the chicken and placed it in a separate baking dish pouring some of the chicken juices  (We thought the chicken was cooked until we cut it open so couldn’t be bothered putting all the parsnips back in the baking tray so we separated it usually we leave it in with the chicken).

Parsnips turned out perfect and glad it wasn’t overly caramalised till the point of being burnt (even though i like it like that). This case it was soft with golden edges and caramalised ends still tasting the sweetness with the peppercorns

SERVED
It was a week night and rice was the easiest option. What can I say? I’m asian and we sometimes eat KFC chicken with rice =P Roast chicken and rice is the bomb especially when juices from the chicken is poured into the rice OMGGGGG

A recipe for truly delightful chicken pies that are bound to become everyone’s favourite.

The shortcrust base can be substituted with a puff pastry base for a lighter and more crispy pie.

Makes 4 individual pies or 2 medium sized family pies. Non-stick pie tins can be found at homeware stores and are inexpensive to buy.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized cubes
3 bacon rashers, diced
1 medium glove of garlic, crushed or chopped
1 medium leek, finely sliced
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup thickened cream
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup grated tasty cheese, loosely packed
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt, pepper & nutmeg, to taste
2 puff pastry sheets, thawed
2 shortcrust pastry sheets, thawed

Method:
Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease pie tins with some non-stick cooking spray.

Heat oil in a large saucepan or frypan over high heat. Add chicken and cook until lightly browned. Set aside.

On medium heat, add to the pan the garlic, bacon and leek. Stir continuously until the bacon has cooked & the leek has softened & gone translucent. Set aside.

In the pan melt the butter, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add stock, cream and wine to the butter and flour mix, stirring until the mixture has slightly thickened. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add back to the pan the chicken, bacon and leek and stir until the sauce has mixed through completely. Add cheese and stir through until melted. Take the pan off the heat to cool.

Using an inverted pie tin as your guide, cut bases out of the shortcrust pastry and lids out of puff pastry. Once the pie mixture has cooled to room temperature, spoon the mixture into the pie tins, wet the shortcrust pastry edges with a little bit of water and pop the pastry lid on. Seal the edges with a fork, trim the edges if required and brush each top with some beaten egg or full cream milk.

Place the pies on an oven tray and cook for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Rest the pies for a few minutes before serving as the filling will be very hot.