Roasted Sutton Hoo Chicken with clementine, herbs and nutmeg

There's nothing better than a good roast Christmas dinner. This recipe is a wonderful way to roast your Sutton Hoo Chicken over the festive season with a seasonal touch of clementine.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large Sutton Hoo Chicken (1.7kg - 2kg)
60g white sourdough breadcrumbs
75g butter, room temperature
20g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
8 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed
A handful of fresh sage leaves, washed and finely chopped
Rind of three or four clementines
Fresh nutmeg
Sea salt and black pepper to season
2 tablespoons Hillfarm's rapeseed oil
2 sticks of celery
1 large white onion
2 carrots
2 bay leaves
Fresh thyme
Three cloves of garlic, unpeeled
150ml white wine
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC

2. Remove any string from your chicken and with a sharp knife slash the drumsticks and thighs four times, making fairly deep and long incisions.

3. Put the butter and breadcrumbs in a mixing bowl. Grate over the rind of the clementines and add in the herbs. Mix it all together and add a good grating of nutmeg and season with sea salt and black pepper.

4. Using your fingers, gently push between the skin and the breast of the chicken to loosen the skin. Take a quarter of the stuffing and push it gently under the skin and over the breast. Do the same with the other side and then stuff the remaining mixture into the slits of the legs and thighs, pushing under the skin where possible.

5. Rub butter over the top of the chicken skin and season.

6. Chop up the celery, onion and carrot into chunks and place in a large roasting pan. Squash the garlic cloves in amongst the veg and pop the bay leaves in with a heap of thyme sprigs. Sit the chicken on top and drizzle over a little rapeseed oil.

7. Pour the wine around the chicken and add a splash of water. Cut the clementines in half and insert two or three into the cavity of the chicken along with more thyme or sage. Put the remaining clementines tucked in beside the chicken legs. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes or so before reducing the heat to 180ºC and roast for a further hour. To check if the chicken is cooked, pierce the thickest part of the thigh and if pink, put back for another 15 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for about 20 minutes in a warm place.

9. While your chicken is resting, make the jus. Strain the remaining liquid into a separator jug and discard the fat. The juices need to go back into the roasting pan, with the vegetables and put over a heat. Add another 250ml of chicken stock and simmer hard until reduced and beginning to look syrupy. Take the clementines and squeeze their juices into the just. Taste and add seasoning along with a tablespoon of dark soy sauce.

10. Finally, carve the chicken into thick chunks, so that everyone gets a good piece of breast with the skin and stuffing and a drumstick or thigh. Serve with braised barley and green beans.

This latest recipe is created by our guest blogger Caroline Winstanley, whose cookery career has taken her from freelance caterer, writing a weekly “Tasting” piece in the Times newspaper to more recently running hugely successful cookery demonstrations in her kitchen in Wiltshire.  Her recipes are for the home cook who wants good food, simply prepared but with no compromise on flavour.
www.carolinewinstanley.net

If you would like to read more lovely foodie recipes by Caroline Winstanley you can visit her website by clicking here or connect with on Instagram @carolinewinstanleyskitchen

 Don't forget to also keep sending in your gorgeous recipes using Sutton Hoo Chicken or tag us on Instagram @suttonhoochicken and hashtag #slowgrownchicken.