Lemon & Thyme Butter-Basted Roast Chicken (Gluten-Free)

An easy roast chicken for a family weekend baked dinner. From BBC GoodFood magazine

• Ready In: 1 hr 55 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 1 roast chicken

Ingredients

• 50  g butter, softened (no substitutes)
• 1  bunch fresh thyme or 1  bunch  lemon thyme, leaves picked, stalks reserved, plus extra to serve
• 4  garlic cloves, 1 mashed, the other 3 left whole but squashed
• 2  lemons, halved
• 1  chicken, about 1 . 5kg (number 15 chicken)
• 2  carrots, roughly chopped
• 1  onion, roughly chopped
• 2  bay leaves

Directions

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
2. In a small bowl, mash the butter with one-third of the thyme leaves, the mashed garlic and the juice of half a lemon. Mix everything together. Add salt and pepper to taste as seasoning. Set aside.
3. Use your hand to loosen the chicken skin away from the breast, then push most of the butter mix into the gap. Rub the rest of the butter all over the outside of the chicken.
4. Stuff the cavity with the lemon halves, remaining thyme leaves and stalks, and the garlic.
5. Scatter the chopped carrot, onion and bay leaves over the base of a small roasting tin.
6. Sit the chicken on top, breast-side up, and roast on the middle shelf for 1 hr 30 mins, basting with the buttery juices after about 40 minutes
7. When the chicken is dark golden, crispy-skinned and the juices run clear, remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes.
8. Use a pair of tongs to pull the lemons, garlic and thyme out of the cavity and into the tin.
9. Lift the chicken up, letting any juices dribble into the tin.
10. Allow the chicken to a serving platter to rest for at least another 15 minutes.
11. Optional- you can use the pan juices to make into a gravy if wished.