Roast chicken with orange & ginger

Don’t let anyone tell you that roast chicken is boring. I don’t know any self-respecting food-loving omnivore that doesn’t love a good roast chicken. Served with the right selection of sides it’s always a good idea. This recipe with oranges and ginger is pretty delicious. Served on a platter with the caramelised wedges scattered around the base, you are definitely set to impress

Ok, so I have found the best-ever roast chicken recipe with herbs and garlic, and roasted with a lot of liquid. It hits the sweet spot for me as far as juiciness goes, and I really like a juicy roast chicken.

I’ve made permutations of it with marmalade and pork sausages (a recipe in my first cookbook), with Italian sausages and orange and with stout, honey and rosemary. It’s a great recipe to add your own flavours to and make your own. I have also broken the chicken into pieces and cooked them in a slow and pressure cooker. 

This recipe is adapted from Diana Henry’s recipe with oranges and ginger. It’s such a delicious flavour combination.

I’m on a mission this week to make recipes to use up the last of my ripe oranges on my tree and this recipe uses eight so I was thrilled. I adapted her recipe slightly to include 125ml of stock and to cook the bird in all the liquid from the beginning. This just works for me. You can check out her recipe in the Telegraph here.

The ginger flavour is quite mild so I might up that next time. Be sure to season the chicken well with salt and white pepper. White pepper is definitely better in this recipe than black.

Don’t be alarmed at the amount of liquid. Half of this will cook off and you will be left with the most delicious marmalade–like gravy that you will wish you had more of. Decant this into a jug and serve it alongside the roast chicken. The roasted orange wedges are absolutely delicious and eaten with the chicken and will pair well with the best duck fat roasted potatoes and steamed tender stem broccoli or green beans.

Other delicious chicken recipes:

Tastiest jerk chicken

Chicken breasts stuffed with pork, sage & apple

Chipotle chicken enchiladas

Coq au Chardonnay

Recipe – serves 4

Roast chicken with orange & ginger

A delicious and succulent recipe for roast chicken with orange & ginger.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 large free-range chicken
• 250 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• Finely grated zest from 2 oranges
• 3 – 4 garlic cloves crushed
• 3 cm piece ginger finely grated (1 Tbsp)
• 125 ml / half a cup chicken stock
• 4 oranges cut into wedges
• olive oil
• ground ginger
• 2 – 3 Tbsp brown sugar
• salt and freshly ground white pepper

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Make the stock and then add the orange juice, zest, garlic and ginger and mix. Pour this over and into the cavity of the chicken. Season the bird well with salt and white pepper and place in a smallish roasting tin with sides (it should fit fairly snugly) and roast for 45 minutes.
• Toss the orange wedges in olive oil, some salt and pepper and place in a single layer on a baking tray. Sprinkle over a little ground ginger and brown sugar.
• At 45 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven and baste it with the juices and then return it to roast with the tray of oranges for a further 45 minutes and until it's golden brown all over. You may need to give it another baste. You may also need to loosely cover the bird with a piece of foil if it is over-browning. This will all depend on your oven.
• *Tip if you like your roast chicken browned all over, and I mean who doesn’t? start roasting it with the breast side down for the first half and then flip it over to brown the top for the second half of the roast. This should also help prevent the breast from drying out, as initially it will be submerged in the liquid.

Author: Sam Linsell