Recipes

From the RSPCA Freedom Food Celebrity Recipe Collection by Sophie Grigson. With the chicken cooked so simply, it's important to buy the best chicken you can afford - Freedom Food at the very minimum.

Serves 4

    1½ kg/3lb Freedom Food labelled free-range chicken
    4 tbsp olive oil
    2 cloves garlic, crushed
    4 cloves garlic, whole and unpeeled
    2 heads of fennel
    1 lemon, halved
    coarse salt and pepper

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7.

To spatchcock your chicken, cut along the backbone (i.e. the underneath, opposite the breast) from neck to tail end.

Now, press down firmly along the breast bone with the flat of your hand, flattening out the chicken. Lay the bird in a large, oiled roasting tin, skin-side uppermost.

Squeeze the lemon over the chicken, and tuck the spent lemon halves alongside the bird. Rub in the crushed garlic and season generously with salt and pepper. Finally spoon a couple of tablespoons of oil over the bird.

Cut the green feathery leaves from the fennel and chop roughly. Scatter over the chicken. Quarter the fennel bulbs, and toss in the remaining oil with the whole garlic cloves. Tuck them all under and around the chicken, then season lightly. Cover the tin with foil.

Bake for about 30 minutes, then remove the foil, baste the chicken and turn the fennel. Return to the oven, uncovered, for a further 20-30 minutes, basting once, until both chicken and vegetables are cooked through. Cut the chicken up into large chunks and serve immediately.