Aga-Roast­ed Chicken

Aga-roast­ed Chick­en with Gar­lic and Goats Cheese

(serves 4 eas­i­ly with lots of leftovers)

1 large roast­ing chicken

2 large knobs goats cheese

splash white wine

splash chick­en stock

sea salt and black pepper

4 heads gar­lic, tops sliced off

sprin­kle olive oil

Place the chick­en in a large roast­ing tin.  Loosen the skin over the chick­en’s breast and stuff one knob of goats cheese under each breast, push­ing it down toward the wings as far as it can go.  Pour over the wine and stock and sprin­kle the salt and pep­per over top of the chick­en.  Arrange the heads of gar­lic around the chick­en and sprin­kle them with olive oil.

Place the roast­ing tin into the Aga’s “hot oven” (mine is a steady 220C/450F) for half an hour.  Then move the tin to the “slow” oven (mine is just about 100C/200F) and roast, cov­ered with alu­mini­um foil, for a fur­ther 1 1/2 hours till the juices run clear.  Pour the roast­ing juices into a gravy sep­a­ra­tor and serve the chick­en in thick slices, with the juices poured over and the heads of gar­lic squeezed out.

***************

This was sim­ply the King of Roast Chick­ens.  Incred­i­bly soft and fla­vor­ful, and each bite, com­bined with bites of but­tery, soft gar­lic, was heavenly.