Roasted chicken must be one of the easiest family meals but, oh so ordinary. Some nice, fruity rosé wine, cherry tomatoes and fresh thyme, transform an ordinary dish into something extraordinary. Butterflying the chicken is really important as it absorbs the flavours better as it bakes and remains unbelievably juicy and crunchy and golden on the outside. But the real star here is the sauce. After roasting the chicken you will blend all the pan juices, together with the cherry tomatoes and whatever it’s in that pan. The result is an unbelievable sauce, absolutely creamy and delicious that will have you licking your plate. No one will believe there isn’t a drop of cream in there.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 100 grams unsalted butter
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, sliced
• 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 cups good quality rosé wine
• 1 Tbs dried oregano
• 8 fresh thyme sprigs (or ½ Tbs dried)

Method

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Prepare the chicken. Ask your butcher to butterfly the chicken or do it your self with kitchen shears. Start from the tail and cut all the way to the neck. Turn the bird over and press it down with your hands or a heavy pan to make it as flat as possible. Season both sides generously with salt and pepper.

Choose a large round skillet or oven pan, one that your chicken can fit in. Melt butter and oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic with a pinch of salt and cook for a minute. Add the thyme. Place the chicken, skin side up, in the skillet. Add the cherry tomatoes around it and pour in the wine. As soon as everything boils, take off the heat. Sprinkle chicken with the oregano and transfer skillet in the oven. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, depending on how big your chicken is.

Remove skillet from the oven and take chicken out on a carving board or serving platter. Tent loosely with foil. Discard thyme sprigs from pan juices. If you have a fat separator, pour pan juices into the fat separator to get rid of the extra fat. If not, you can use a slice of bread to absorb some of the fat. If you don’t want to bother with that, don’t. Your sauce will be just as fantastic. Put pan juices and everything else in that pan (cherry tomatoes, onions, garlic) into a blender. Blend until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. Cut chicken and serve with the divine sauce.