Jamie Oliver Pot-roast Chicken

Jamie Oliver’s pot-roast chicken is a whole bird browned then roasted over stock-cooked fondant potatoes and a bulb of garlic, finished with a nutty parsley and hazelnut salsa. It’s a five-ingredient dinner that serves 4 in 1 hour 35 minutes.

In 5 Ingredients Mediterranean (2023) he ties it to Catalan cooking and a trip to Barcelona. The potatoes cook in the pan below the chicken, absorbing the juices as they braise, while the raw herby salsa spooned over at the end lifts the whole rich, comforting plate.

The step that makes it is browning the chicken first. Searing the whole bird all over before it goes in gives you golden, flavourful skin and starts the fat rendering into the pan, which is what flavours the potatoes braising underneath.

Jamie Oliver Pot-roast Chicken

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

30

minutes

Calories

669

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

45

minutes

Jamie’s five-ingredient one-pot dinner from 5 Ingredients Mediterranean: a browned whole chicken roasted over stock-cooked fondant potatoes and roasted garlic, finished with a parsley-hazelnut salsa. Serves four.

Ingredients

• 1 x 1.5kg whole free-range chicken

• 1kg potatoes

• 1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley (30g)

• 1 bulb of garlic

• 40g blanched hazelnuts

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Directions

• Brown the bird:Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Rub the chicken all over with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper, then brown in a large casserole pan on high heat, removing it to a plate once golden all over, about 5 minutes.
• Build the pot:Peel the potatoes and chop into 5cm chunks. Pour 700ml of water into the pan, then add the parsley stalks, the garlic bulb (reserving 1 clove) and the potatoes.
• Boil then roast:Bring to the boil on the hob for 15 minutes and season lightly. Sit the chicken on top and roast in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, until golden and cooked through.
• Make the salsa:Finely chop the reserved garlic clove, very finely chop the parsley leaves, and roughly chop the hazelnuts. Decant into a bowl, stir in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 4 tablespoons of water, and season.
• Serve:Transfer the chicken and potatoes to a platter, spoon over the salsa, and serve the garlic bulb on the side for squeezing over.

FAQs

Why brown the chicken before roasting?

Searing the whole bird all over in the hot pan first does two things. It gives the skin a deep, golden colour and savoury flavour that pale oven-roasting alone won’t, and it starts rendering the fat, which then drips down to flavour the potatoes as they braise underneath.

Take about five minutes to colour it properly on all sides, turning it with tongs, before you build the rest of the pot. Rubbing it with oil, salt and pepper first helps the skin crisp. It’s the same principle behind the crisp-skinned paprika spatchcock chicken, just achieved on the hob instead of the oven bars.

What makes the potatoes “fondant”?

Fondant potatoes are browned then slow-cooked in stock or a flavoured liquid until they turn meltingly soft and soak up all that flavour. Here they cook in the water below the chicken, absorbing the rendered fat and garlicky juices, so they end up rich and savoury rather than plain boiled.

Cutting them into large 5cm chunks is deliberate, so they hold together through the long cook rather than collapsing. Boiling them for 15 minutes on the hob first gives them a head start, so they’re perfectly tender by the time the chicken is done. Don’t skip that hob stage.

What is the herby salsa, and can I change the nuts?

It’s a Catalan-style raw sauce, close to a chimichurri or a picada, made from finely chopped parsley, garlic and hazelnuts loosened with olive oil and water. Spooned over the rich chicken and potatoes at the end, its fresh, nutty, garlicky punch cuts through and lifts the whole plate.

Blanched hazelnuts are traditional and give a sweet, buttery crunch, but almonds or walnuts work just as well if that’s what you have. Toasting the nuts first deepens the flavour. It’s a close cousin of the fresh, bright finish Jamie gives his punchy prawns with green chilli salsa.

Why roast a whole garlic bulb, and how do I use it?

Roasting the whole bulb in the pot, in all those juices, turns the raw cloves soft, sweet and jammy, losing their harsh bite entirely. Served on the side, everyone can squeeze the mellow, caramelised garlic out of the skins onto their chicken and potatoes to taste.

It’s a generous, help-yourself touch that adds a mild, roasted garlic sweetness without any effort. One clove is held back raw for the salsa, where you do want that sharper, fresher garlic hit. The two forms give you roasted sweetness on the plate and raw punch in the sauce.

How do I know the chicken is cooked, and can I use pieces?

For a 1.5kg bird, the hour and 15 minutes in the oven is the guide. It’s done when the juices at the thickest part of the thigh run clear with no pink, and the leg feels loose. If it needs more colour, a few extra minutes at a higher heat crisps the skin.

You can use bone-in chicken pieces instead of a whole bird, which cook a little faster, so start checking around 45 minutes. For a lighter fish version of this pot-and-salsa idea, Jamie’s steamed fish with an orange dressing works on the same finish-with-a-fresh-sauce principle.

What do I serve with it, and does it keep?

It’s a complete meal, chicken, potatoes and garlic in one pot, so it needs little more than a simple green salad or some steamed greens to balance the richness. The juices left in the pan make a lovely light gravy poured over.

Leftovers keep for a couple of days, and the meat is great cold or shredded into other dishes, much like Jamie’s batch-cook poached chicken. Store the salsa separately and add it fresh, since it’s best made close to serving.