Pan roasted Chicken with Lemon, Garlic and Rosemary

The key to this dish is the preperation of the chicken. You have to SPATCHCOCK it. This basically means romoving the spine, simply get a knife or pair of butchers scissors and cut through the rib bones either side of the spine, keep this for later. Now lay the chicken down breast side up, ensure the legs and wings aren't caught under the carcass and simply push down to flatten the chicken out.

Firstly pre-heat the oven to 200C. Take a large oven proof frying pan and place it on the hob at a high heat. Place you garlic cloves on your chopping board and squash them with the side of your knife. add the oil, squashed garlic cloves and the rosemary to the pan, whilst they are heating up slice the lemon in to 5 nice chucky slices then add these and the spine from the chicken to the pan.

After 2 or 3 mins move everything in the pan to the sides and place the chicken in the pan breast side down and it should start to sizzle nicely. Now season the open side of the carcass with salt and pepper. After 7 or 8 mins check the chicken and see if it's satrting to brown. If so flip it over taking care not to pull the legs off and season this side.

After another 10 mins or so pull out a couple of the slices of lemon and some rosemary and garlic and place on the top of the chicken. Now place the pan in the middle of the pre heated oven and leave to roast for about 30-40 mins.

After this time check to make sure it's cooked all the way through by piercing the meat and squeezing the juices out, if they run clear it's cooked. Take the chicken out the pan and seperate the legs and wings from the body and divide the breast into 4. Now crush the lemon slices in the pan with the back of a fork and pour all the juices from the pan over the chicken. I serve this with some crusty bread and a Rocket and Parmesan salad.