Lemon roast chicken

I did it! I roasted a chicken for the very first time! And it was soo good and delicious!
I'm definitely going to do this again.
Of course I used my new Dutch oven for it, and I'm so glad I did. Very easy to use and I could just pop it into the oven.

Over the past few days I had been looking for the perfect recipe to start with, while using my Dutch oven. I ended up using a recipe from my cookbook 'Mastering the art of French Cooking' by Julia Child, as a base, and just added whatever I thought would be good.
I was a little scared of cleaning the chicken, but I was lucky because the chicken I bought had already been cleaned properly. *big relief*
The other good thing about it was that I didn't need any kitchen string because my chicken had already been tied.

After I browned my chicken, I had to 'transfer it to a plate' and I didn't realise that's much easier said than done.. So I ended up using a spatula and my hands, making them a little more 'heat proof'.
Next, I didn't know how to carve such a thing. I'd read about it, but still wasn't too sure where to start, but luckily I found this youtube movie where a French chef explains how to do it. Not that hard at all!

The vegetables had a lovely lemony taste and I ended up eating all of them. I'd recommend adding some more vegetables to this dish, together with the onions and carrots; any type of pumpkin would do, or some celeriac. Or you could serve it with a fresh green salad.

Of course I have a lot of leftovers from this dish and I'm not quite sure what to do with those yet. I could definitely make some chicken stock.
And the chicken meat will go with just about any dish.

Lemon roast chicken (serves 4)
- 1 chicken (approx. 1250g)
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 4 medium winter carrots, sliced
- 1 lemon, quartered
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp dried thyme leaves
- 1 tbsp dried coriander leaves
- 2 tsp paprika powder
- 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Heat coconut oil in a Dutch oven and season your chicken inside and out with the black pepper, thyme, coriander and paprika.
3. Brown the chicken on all sides and transfer chicken to a plate.
4. In the remaining oil, fry garlic, onions and carrots for just a minute or so.
5. Put the chicken on top of the veggies and put the lemon pieces around it.
6. Cover the pan with a lid and transfer to the oven. Bake for approx. 70-80 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the juices run clear. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
7. Carve your chicken and serve the pieces with some of the vegetables. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and enjoy!