Roast chicken with bread sauce
This comforting chicken dish, taken from Jackson Boxer's Vesper restaurant, comes with an untraditional take on bread sauce – a smooth, glossy onion sauce, but still imbued with all the flavours you’d recognise from the old favourite. ‘Familiar flavours of my childhood,’ Jackson says.
Other recipes from Vesper published on the House & Garden website include a simple green salad with Spenwood cheese, a chocolate cake with sour cream – and of course the classic Vesper martini.
The House & Garden archive is full of roast chicken recipes, from Kitty Coles’ roast chicken, spiced spinach and yoghurt to Colu Henry's roast chicken romesco with pearled couscous.
Recipe information
Yield
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the chicken
For the sauce
To serve
Preparation
Step 1
Start with the bird at room temperature, and the fan oven heated to 230˚C.
Step 2
Brush the bird with butter, then season with salt and insert the herbs into the cavity. Roast for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 160˚C fan/mark 4 and cook for 30 minutes. Put the bird to one side on a warm plate to rest for 30 minutes.
Step 3
For the sauce, set a wide pan over a low-medium heat and melt the butter. Add the onions, salt, bay leaves and cloves. Cover with a lid and cook gently for 20 minutes, until the onions have fully collapsed but not coloured. Remove the lid, pour in the cream, bring up to a simmer.
Step 4
Remove the bay leaves and cloves, transfer the sauce to a blender, and blend until smooth. Fold in the breadcrumbs, and season.
Step 5
Transfer the chicken to a board. Meanwhile, lay the chard leaves in the warm roasting juices on the plate to wilt. Carve the chicken.
Step 6
Take a serving dish and spoon bread sauce onto it. Arrange the chicken on top, then drape the chard and courgette over the chicken. Spoon over the juices.
