Roast chicken with peppers & feta
For a casual summer lunch, try this Mediterranean roast with chickpeas, vegetables and salty Greek cheese
- Prep:20 mins
Cook:1 hrs 30 mins
- Serves 4
- Easy
Nutrition per serving
- kcal 929
- fat 59g
- saturates 19g
- carbs 29g
- sugars 14g
- fibre 9g
- protein 67g
- salt 2.8g
Ingredients
- 1 garlic bulb, separated into cloves, 3 crushed, remainder left whole
- 2 tbsp chopped oregano
- 2 lemons, juice of 1, the other cut into wedges
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 chicken (about 1.6kg/3lb 8oz)
- 3 large red peppers, deseeded and cut into large chunks
- 3 small red onions, cut into wedges
- 4 large courgettes, cut into thick wedges
- 3 tbsp chopped mint, plus a few sprigs to serve
- 200g pack feta cheese, crumbled into chunks
- 400g can chickpeas, drained
- crusty bread, to serve (optional)
Method
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Mix the crushed garlic and oregano with the lemon juice and 3 tbsp of the oil to make a dressing. Season. Make a few slashes in each chicken leg, then put the chicken in a large roasting tin and rub with 2 tbsp of the dressing. Stuff the squeezed lemon shells inside the body cavity. Roast for 30 mins.
Meanwhile, tip the peppers, onions, whole garlic cloves and courgettes into a large bowl, and toss with the remaining oil and some seasoning. After 30 mins, pile the veg around the chicken, drizzle with half the remaining dressing and roast for 1 hr.
Remove the chicken from the oven, lift onto a platter, cover with foil and leave to rest. Check the roasting tin, and if the chicken has rendered a lot of fat, pour it off, skim and return the juices to the tin. Stir the lemon wedges, mint, feta, chickpeas and remaining dressing through the veg and juices, then return to the oven for 10 mins to warm through. Pile around the chicken, scatter with mint sprigs and serve with bread, if you like, to mop up the juices.