A magnificent home cooked chicken

Why buy a pre-cooked chicken from the shop when you can cook a delicious free range one at home, and the smell throughout your home will be enticing! I bought this free range chicken from Aldi and it was very reasonably priced for a whole chicken of this quality.

First of all l unwrap the chicken and rinse the outside and insides with cool clean water. I place the chicken on a rack as shown in the picture and put two cups of water in the glass dish. I coat the chicken in extra virgin olive oil and season with some ground black pepper, sea salt and mixed herbs. I then cover it in foil and place into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees celsius. I like to cook my chickens for quite a long time so this chicken was in the oven for around 2.5 hours plus another twenty minutes with the foil off to brown. When l remove the chicken from the oven l cover it in foil again and leave it for about 30 minutes to rest. I then place it on a serving dish and cover it with new foil and place it into the fridge if l am not serving it straight away. Every part of the chicken as shown above was so moist and delicious and you know you have done a good job if you try to transfer it from the cooking dish to the serving plate and it falls apart. Remember not to throw away the bones, skin and left over meat as this can be used to make a very healthy stock.