Being on call all weekend I knew a quiet weekend was in store. I planned a Sunday Roast for Saturday evening, and then decided to invite Philippe, Ana, Jon and Pete along to try and dispell the myth about how terrible English cooking is.

Even if I do say so myself, it turned out very well. Roast Chicken with roast potatoes, sausages, bacon, (home made) stuffing, carrots, brocolli, peas, sweetcorn and gravy.

So here is how I did it:

• Made the stuffing. Minced up 4 pork(ish) sausages with 120 grams of breadcrumbs and a table spoon of parsley and sage. (When I was younger I used to dislike stuffing. If only I’d been told that it was just sausages and bread crumbs!)
• Heated the oven to 190 degrees.
• Cleaned and seasoned the Chicken with olive oil salt and pepper then covered with streaky bacon. Placed in the oven in a covered baking tray.
• Peeled the potatoes.
• Removed chicken to baste (spoon the oil back over it) after 30 minutes.
• Boiled the potatoes for 10 minutes then battered them about a bit to give them fluffy rough edges (all the better for roasting them).
• Added the potatoes and basted them and the chicken (60 minutes after starting the chicken).
• Added the stuffing (I cooked this seperately based on several recommendations online (To keep the chicken moist a lemon was stuffed inside instead).
• After 75 minutes, added the sausages and and basted the whole lot.
• Just over 90 minutes after starting I removed the Chicken to allow it to “relax”, leaving the potatoes, sausages and bacon to finish. A tip from Delia.
• It was then just a question of cooking the veg, carving the chicken and serving all together.

A good evening, and an excellent meal.

Oh, and yes, I cheated with the gravy. Bisto out of a packet… Having made stuffing for the first time I didn’t want to tackle doing “proper” gravy on the same day.