Lemon and Thyme Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

I love to cook and eat chicken.   Once upon a time, when I was working full time . . .  I was able to afford free range organic chicken, and I won't like . . . it was lovely.  These days all I can rise to buy with the budget I have to work with is higher welfare chicken.  I am not sure I want to really know what constitutes higher welfare, but  . . .  I like to believe that they are not that badly treated, or as badly treated as the other kind.    Unemployment is a great equalizer.  If I could afford it I would certainly still prefer to buy free range and organic, but one must do what one must do.
 

We do most of our shopping at Aldi these days.   They have good prices and they have a much wider variety of goods in the store than they use to have way back when.  I have always liked their cheeses and meats, and their like brands are pretty close to the real thing in my opinion.

 

They even have luxury food lines which are quite good as well.  I reckon we have cut our grocery bill in half by shopping there.  Seriously.  I only go to the other shops for what I can't get at Aldi.   (They even stock tv papers now.   Bonus!)



They had chicken leg quarters on offer this past week @ £1.15 per pack of two.  That is a real bargain, and so I picked up two packs and jointed them so that I ended up with 8 pieces of chicken.  They were a really nice size as well.  I do love chicken breasts, but they have a tendancy to be rather bland when it comes to flavour, really only taking on the flavour of what you are cooking them with or in.



Legs and thighs however . . .  these are the joints which do the most work and which develop the most flavour when it comes right down to it.   They also lend themselves to a bit of a slow roast, which helps them to really absorbe the flavours which I used today when I cooked these . . .



Delicious additions such as fresh thyme from my kitchen garden and fresh lemon wedges, squeezed over top . . .  some seasoning and garlic . . . olive oil and white balsamic vinegar.   Roasted together with red onion wedges and new potato wedges they went down a real treat!  They made for a really delicious economical meal.  I simply cooked some frozen corn and some peas to have along side, but a salad would have gone equally as well.   Enjoy!

*Lemon and Thyme Roasted Chicken and Potatoes*
Serves 4

Printable Recipe  

A delicious meal in a dish.  Everything is here.  Moist and tender pieces of chicken, potatoes, onions . . . all flavoured beautifully with the wonderful flavours of lemon and thyme.  

4 large chicken leg quarters, jointed, skin left on.

1 1/2 pounds of small to medium potatoes, washed and quartered

2 medium red onions, carefully peeled and quartered

6 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 large lemon, cut into 6 wedges

60ml of olive oil (1/4 cup)

2 TBS white balsamic vinegar

60ml of chicken stock (1/4 cup)

salt and black pepper to taste  

Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 6.  Have ready a large roasting pan or baking dish.  You will want it large enough to hold your ingredients in a single layer for the most part.

Place the chicken pieces and potatoes in the roasting tin.   Insert the wedges of onions and the cloves of garlic in between them, here and there.  Squeeze the lemon wedges over all and tuck the spent wedges in between.   Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar and drizzle this over top.  Season with salt and pepper.   Splash the chicken stock over all.  Tuck in the sprigs of fresh thyme.  Cover tightly with foil.  Roast in the heated oven for 20 minutes.  Uncover and continue to roaste for an additional 30 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan and basting the chicken and potatoes occasionally, until the chicken is fork tender along with the potatoes and both are beginning to brown.

Serve hot from the oven with some of the pan juices spooned over top.

Note - if you think it is getting a bit dry while it is baking splash over some more stock.