WHAT’S COOKING: AirFryday: Roast chicken with thyme-mint butter

It was the price that caught my attention first. R49.99 per kilogram for a free-range chicken. Hmmm. Okay, I’ll have one of those. I love a bargain.

As often happens, I used the drive home to plan the recipe. My mind went to those herbs. And to the fridge. I clocked the leftover butter in its little wrapper on the second shelf from the top. It would need salt and pepper too. And, once mixed, the herb butter would be spooned under the skin of the chicken breast and thigh.

This is something I often do and it makes all the difference to the bird’s flavour, while lending it some additional moisture as well. So, the seasoning that you add to the herb butter is also seasoning the breast and thigh meat, under the skin. But you still have to season the outside of the skin, of course.

I roasted this in my Kenwood air fryer oven, which is more like a miniature oven, with a door/window, than the kind of air fryer that has a drawer and basket.

My herb pot. Mint, thyme, oregano and chives. (Photo: Tony Jackman) Before the bird is ready to go into the oven, you also need to step outside into that weak winter sun and pluck some more mint and thyme from those little bushes in that pot over there. To shove into the cavity, after you’ve seasoned the inside with salt and pepper.

Finally, either drizzle olive oil over the seasoned skin (on the underside of the fowl too) or melt some more butter and brush that over.

You’re good to go.

Tony’s herb-butter roast chicken

(Per 1 chicken)

Ingredients

1 whole free-range chicken, rinsed and patted dry

2 Tbsp thyme leaves, picked

2 Tbsp mint leaves, finely chopped

More thyme and mint sprigs for the cavity

Butter, melted, as needed (about ⅓ cup in all)

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Make sure the chicken is at room temperature — if it’s cold, remove from the fridge an hour before starting to cook.

Rinse the herbs, wrap them in a sheet of kitchen paper and squeeze lightly. Pull the thyme leaves off their stems and discard the stems. Pick the mint leaves off their stems. Put the herbs on a board and chop finely.

Melt butter, add the chopped herbs, and stir. Season with salt and black pepper.

Prise the breast skin at the cavity end of the fowl and shove your finger in, moving it around to loosen the skin from the breast. Spoon some of the herb butter under the skin, then massage the skin above to spread it around. Repeat on the other breast. Do the same with the thighs.

Season the cavity of the bird with salt and black pepper. Shove more mint and thyme sprigs inside.

Brush the outside of the bird with melted butter, then season it with salt and pepper.

Let it stand, for the flavours to permeate the flesh, while you preheat the air fryer oven, or conventional oven, to 200°C or higher.

Roast at 200°C to 220°C (ovens differ) for 90 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar for 20 minutes while the meat relaxes.

Serve with roast potatoes and Parmesan gem squash . DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks .