Throwback Thursday: Old-fashioned roast chicken and gravy

A roast chicken is a singularly British thing. Chickens have been roasted, and the remainders in the pan turned into gravy, since at least the 15th century, and of course during the Empire era this was among the dishes that travelled far and wide.

Consequently, roast chicken became a part of world culture, which is not to say there aren’t or weren’t regional ways of roasting a chicken coexisting with the advance, as it were, of the British roasted fowl in the greater world.

But as dishes travel, recipes for cooking them change. So we’re not talking about pollo asado here (Peru), blackened chicken (USA), or tandoori chicken, and let’s be honest, there’s little in the world of chicken to top that subcontinental wonder. But that is not the simple delight we know as old-fashioned roast chicken with gravy.

The recipe does not need much: a chicken, some carrots, an onion, a herb (I used thyme), a lemon, and simple seasoning. Oh, and butter. Obviously. It’s British! Of course there’s butter. That’s right — not even stuffing. Just the absolute baseline old recipe.

Once the fowl is roasted, the age-old tradition your gran taught you about deglazing the bottom of the pan and scraping up all the deeply flavourful icky bits comes into play. With the simple addition of some chicken stock — in this case, water mixed with a sachet of liquid chicken stock — the dish is quickly completed.

If you’d like to stay with the theme of simplicity, serve it with simple roast potatoes and steamed peas.

Tony’s old-fashioned roast chicken with gravy

(Serves 4, or 2 with leftovers)

Ingredients

1 chicken, about 1.5kg

1 large onion, roughly chopped

3 carrots, roughly chopped

Handful of fresh thyme leaves

1 lemon, in quarters

Butter

Salt and pepper

For the gravy:

250ml chicken stock

1 Tbsp cornflour mixed with water

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven.

Peel and roughly chop the onions and carrots. Quarter the lemon.

Rinse and dry the bird. Snip off the wing tips (freeze them for making stock).

Season the cavity and salt and pepper. 

Place the lemon quarters inside the cavity along with some thyme sprigs.

Place the chopped onion and carrot at the bottom of a heavy oven pan, with more thyme sprigs. Season with salt and pepper.

Rub the outside of the bird (all the skin) with butter. Season all over with salt and pepper.

Put the chicken on top of the vegetables in the oven pan.

Put it in the preheated oven to roast for 80 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow the chicken to rest.

Remove the pan from the oven, lift out the chicken and place it on a clean plate, along with the carrots and onion. Put it back in the turned-off oven with the door closed to keep it warm while it rests. This frees up the oven pan for the making of the gravy while the bird rests.

I made chicken stock using one sachet of liquid chicken stock diluted with a cup of boiling water. I’m not a fan of stock cubes as I find them too salty, but use one if you prefer.

Put the pan on the flame and pour in the stock, scraping the pan to dislodge all the “goodness” (as gran may have called it) at the bottom of the pan. Let this simmer away for a couple of minutes, then stir in some diluted cornflour if you like. It could be that the gravy is perfectly fine without this; it’s a call you need to make.

Gran would have used Bisto or Brono, but with access to such good liquid chicken stock these days, that really isn’t necessary any more.

Oh and don’t waste those carrots and onions that you cooked under the bird. Spoon them on to plates while you’re serving.

You can strain the gravy if you like, but nobody’s going to call the Gravy Police if you don’t bother with that. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.