This is a great recipe to make your Sunday roast that extra bit special. Using some great Spring produce like Chantenay carrots, fennel and watercress. You can serve the chicken with the roast veg, roasties or mash and spring salad. This is a recipe I found in Olive magazine, issue April 2011, and it was really quite delicious! Unfortunately, I can’t find the recipe online to share.

Roast chicken with goats’ cheese and watercress stuffing

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Serves 4 | Prep 20 mins | Cook 1 hr and 40 mins | A bit of effort | Gluten-free

Tip: You can get ahead by stuffing the chicken a few hours and preparing the vegetables.

You’ll need:
  • 200g crumbly goats’ cheese;
  • 75g watercress, tough stalks removed, rest chopped;
  • 8 slices Italian smoked pancetta – 4 shredded, 4 left whole;
  • 1.8 kg chicken, at room temperature;
  • olive oil;
  • 250g Chantenay carrots;
  • 8 shallots, peeled;
  • 2 bulbs of fennel, trimmed and quartered;
  • 8 garlic cloves, not peeled;
  • 3 tbsp white wine;
  • 500 ml chicken stock.

Preheat the oven to 200C, fan 180C, gas 6. For the stuffing, crumble the goats’ cheese into a bowl and mix with watercress and shredded pancetta. Loosen the skin of the breast of the chicken and gently stuff both sides with the stuffing mixture. Fold the skin back over the end of the chicken.

Put the chicken into a large roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil and season. Place the four slices of pancetta over the breasts. Roast for 45 minutes – check halfway through and cover the pancetta with foil if it’s over-browning. After the 45 minutes, remove the pancetta from the chicken and set aside. Scatter the carrots, shallots, fennel and garlic in the tin and roast for a further 45 minutes or until the chicken has cooked through.

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Transfer the chicken to a board and the vegetables to a dish. Turn off the over reheat the crispy pancetta in the warm oven while you make the gravy. Discard the excess fat from the tin and then place the tin over direct heat on the hob. Pour in the white wine and stock, and stir in the honey. Bubble for 10 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Sieve the gravy and check the seasoning. Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables, crispy pancetta and gravy.

I served it with these delicious courgettes with cheesy crumbs.

Original recipe Olive magazine, issue April 2011.