Pesto roast chicken with lemon roast veg

This all-in-one roast couldn’t be easier to make. Spreading green pesto over the chicken gives it an amazingly fragrant flavour, plus the herby juices mix with the spuds and other veg beneath, to delicious effect. Bump up the veg by serving with some buttered spring greens or cabbage on the side.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

Ready in: 2hrs 10 mins

• 1.6-2kg whole chicken
  
• 2 tbsp pesto, plus extra to serve
• 3 lemons, halved
• 600g new potatoes, halved
• 150g broccoli florets
• 100g green beans

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5.
   
2. Put the chicken in a roasting tin. Ease your fingers under the skin on the breast to make a pocket and push in half the pesto, rubbing it all over the flesh. Rub the remaining pesto over the skin and squeeze over ½ lemon. Put the lemon half along with another half in the cavity of the bird. Arrange the potatoes and remaining lemon halves around the chicken and season.
3.  Cook in the oven for 20 mins per 450g, plus 20 mins extra, until golden and cooked through and the juices run clear when the thickest part of the leg is pierced.
4.  Remove the chicken from the tin and put it on a board. Cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 15-20 mins.
5.  Add the broccoli florets and green beans to the roasting tin, toss with the juices and potatoes, add a splash of white wine and roast for a further 15 mins, until the veg is tender and the potatoes are golden. Remove from the tin.
6.  Pour the cooking juices into a jug and spoon off the fat. Serve the warm juices poured over the meat and veg, with an extra drizzle of pesto if you like.