French Oven Roasted Chicken with Flavoured Rice

This roast chicken dish is very simple to make but is sooo delicious. Rub chicken with spices. Put into preheated French Oven (sometimes called Dutch oven, too but since I'm using my Le Crueset, it's called a French oven). Cover and bake. Uncover and bake some more. Take it out to rest. Put cooked rice into drippings. Eat and enjoy!

The beauty of using the Le Crueset French oven (or any hardy, oven proof Dutch oven with a good seal) is that the chicken tenderises naturally inside the casserole while it is baking, and the juices produced by this process will be used to flavour the rice.


FRENCH OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN, WITH FLAVOURED RICE
Serves 6

1 whole chicken
Cooked rice
4 sprigs rosemary
3 small sized onions
Splash of white wine

Basting Sauce:
Juice and rind of 1 lemon (do not throw out the lemon after squeezing)
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons mustard seeds, pounded and ground in a mortar and pestle
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
4 tablespoons olive oil
Knob of butter

PROCEDURE:

1. Preheat your oven to 400F. Put oil in your French oven and put it into the oven, uncovered. Prepare the basting sauce by mixing all the ingredients, except for the butter and garlic powder, in a small bowl. Mix well with a wire whisk. Set aside.

2. Prepare the chicken by discarding the head, feet and innards. Pat dry. Make sure it is at room temperature when you're about to cook it.

Using your hands, massage the chicken with the basting sauce, all over, front, back and inside the cavity.  Try to insert your finger between the skin of the breast and the flesh, without breaking the skin. Put the basting sauce there too.  Put one sprig of rosemary into each side of the breast, in between the skin and the flesh. In the cavity, put the lemon that has been squeezed, the onions and the remaining sprigs of rosemary. For sure, you will have some basting sauce left over. Set this aside.

3.  Get the French oven out of the oven (be careful and use a potholder as it is very hot!). Put the chicken, back side down, into the hot casserole. Cover and put it back into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

4. In the remaining basting sauce, add a knob of butter and the garlic powder, and mix well with the whisk.

Lower the oven temperature to 350F. Get the pot and uncover after 30 minutes of baking, and baste both sides of the bird. By this time, there will be some oil and caramelised sauces produced in the pot and some of it may look burned. Don't worry as this is a great source of flavour.  Return the pot into the oven, uncovered and bake for 10 minutes more.

5.  Get the pot out, turn the chicken and baste one last time. Return into the oven to bake for the last 10 minutes.  After that, take out the bird and put it onto your serving bowl. Remove the rosemary springs and lemon rind; discard these. Get the onions from the cavity and rough chop it. Cover the chicken with a tent of foil and rest.

6.  Get your pot, which by this time, has a lot of caramelised goodness. Put it on top of the stove over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté for a bit. Add a splash of white wine to deglaze further.

Add the cooked rice and mix well.  Serve the chicken with the rice.