Recipes, guides and kitchen know-how. Mostly useful, occasionally silly.
Garlic Roast Chicken - What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Britons kept chickens as sacred pets until the Romans turned up and roasted them. Here's the modern version: garlic butter under the skin, sweet roasted cloves in the tin.
Rate this recipe
- Prep20 min
- Cook1 hr 25
- Rest20 min
- Serves4
- Calories~690
Calories are approximate, per serving, worked out from the ingredients. Brands and portion sizes vary.
Garlic roast chicken is a whole chicken roasted with garlic butter under the skin and whole garlic cloves in the tin - about 1 hour 25 minutes for a 1.7kg bird.
Last week the time machine took us to Stonehenge for a pig roast.
This week the milk float made it to AD 43. Top speed, downhill, with a tailwind.
Tyson was sick on Hadrian's Wall. Aaron pointed out that Hadrian's Wall wasn't built until AD 122. Twice.
We'd come to see what the Romans ate. Mostly, it turns out, the bird the Britons had refused to eat for 400 years.
What have the Romans ever done for us? Apart from the roads. And the baths. And Sunday dinner.
Did the Romans bring chickens to Britain?
No. Chickens got to Britain first, somewhere around 500-300 BC - but the Britons wouldn't eat them. The Romans did.
In 2020 a team led by the University of Exeter radiocarbon-dated the oldest chicken bones in Britain.
The early birds were buried whole, with no butchery marks. Nobody had so much as looked at a drumstick.
Julius Caesar noticed too. He wrote that the Britons thought it wasn't lawful to eat the hare, the cock or the goose - they kept them for pleasure.
So for about 400 years, Britain's chickens were pets. Possibly gods. Definitely not dinner.
Isaac quietly pointed out that Caesar never actually conquered Britain. He popped over in 55 and 54 BC and went home. The real invasion was AD 43, under Claudius. Isaac is nine. Isaac is usually right.
What did Roman soldiers in Britain eat?
Plenty of chicken. A Roman shopping list from Vindolanda fort, near where Hadrian's Wall now stands, asks for twenty chickens, a hundred apples and up to two hundred eggs.
It's written in ink on a thin wooden tablet around AD 85-92. You can read the whole thing online. My favourite bit: the apples are only wanted if good ones can be found, and the eggs only if they're on sale at a fair price.
Two thousand years ago, at the edge of the known world, a Roman was checking the reduced shelf. I've never felt closer to an empire.
Once the Romans arrived, chickens went from the temple to the table. When the Romans left in AD 410, chicken numbers crashed. Turns out the chickens needed the Romans more than we did.
Did the Romans bring garlic to Britain?
The Romans are usually credited with bringing cultivated garlic to Britain. We already had the wild stuff - ramsons - growing in the woods.
Romans loved garlic, and their cookbook, Apicius, is full of chicken. One recipe, chicken Frontonianus, roasts the bird with oil, leeks, dill, savory and coriander - and a good slosh of fish sauce.
We've kept the spirit and lost the fish. Garlic butter, lemon and thyme does the job.
Fancy going full Roman? Swap the thyme for dill and a pinch of ground coriander. Apicius would approve. He'd also want his fish sauce back.
What you need
- 1 whole chicken, 1.6-1.8kg. Free-range if you can.
- 1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves, skins left on. These go round the tin and turn soft and sweet.
- 1 lemon. The zest goes in the butter, the halves go inside the chicken.
- A few sprigs of thyme
- 2 onions, thickly sliced. The chicken sits on these, out of its own juices.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt flakes and black pepper
- 150ml chicken stock or water for the tin. Enough to stop it burning. Not enough to steam the skin.
For the garlic butter and gravy
The garlic butter is 60g soft butter, 3 crushed cloves, lemon zest and thyme. The gravy is a spoonful of flour, 300ml stock and the roasted garlic from the tin.
The butter goes under the skin. Never on top. Garlic on top of the skin burns, and burnt garlic tastes like an apology.
- 60g butter, soft. Soft enough to spread. Not melted.
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- Zest of the lemon
- 1 tbsp thyme leaves, or chopped parsley
- ½ tsp salt and a good grind of pepper
- 1 tbsp plain flour, for the gravy
- 300ml chicken stock, for the gravy
Kit
- A garlic press. Three cloves straight into the butter, skins and all. No peeling, no garlic fingers.
- A meat thermometer. The only honest answer to "is it done?" Here's how to use a meat thermometer.
- A roasting tin that fits the chicken with a little room round it. Too big and the juices burn.
- A dessert spoon, for getting under the skin
- Kitchen paper
- A whisk and a sieve, for the gravy
How to roast a chicken with garlic butter
Step 1 - Dry the chicken
- Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes in.
- Don't wash it. The Food Standards Agency says washing raw chicken just splashes germs round the sink. The oven does the cleaning.
- Pat it bone-dry all over with kitchen paper, inside and out. Dry skin crisps. Wet skin steams.
Tyson watched the whole thing. He thinks the chicken is his. He thinks everything is his.
Step 2 - Make the garlic butter
- Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan, gas 7).
- Press 3 garlic cloves straight into the soft butter with a garlic press. No press? Chop them as finely as you can.
- Add the lemon zest, thyme, ½ tsp salt and plenty of pepper. Mash it together with a fork.
Eesha left the room. She said she couldn't watch. She came back for the gravy.
Step 3 - Get the butter under the skin
- Start at the neck end. Slide an upside-down dessert spoon between the skin and the breast, gently, to make a pocket. Work down to the thighs if you can.
- Push three-quarters of the butter into the pocket and smooth it over the breast from the outside.
- Rub the rest over the legs, then rub the oil over the skin and season it with salt flakes. Keep the crushed garlic off the top of the skin - it burns.
Erin issued a royal decree: the skin must not tear. Isaac said nothing and didn't tear it. Isaac never tears it.
Step 4 - Set up the tin
- Spread the onion slices over the middle of the tin and sit the chicken on top, breast up.
- Push the squeezed lemon halves and the thyme sprigs into the cavity. No garlic inside - in there it just steams.
- Lightly squash the unpeeled garlic cloves with the flat of a knife and scatter them round the chicken.
- Pour the 150ml stock into the tin, round the bird - not over it.
Lara lined the garlic up in rows. Then ranks. Then a legion. It took twenty minutes. The oven was ready in ten.
Step 5 - Roast hot, then lower
- Roast for 15 minutes at 220C (200C fan, gas 7) to get the skin going.
- Turn the oven down to 190C (170C fan, gas 5) and roast for 20 minutes per 500g - about 1 hour 10 minutes more for a 1.7kg chicken.
- Spoon the tin juices over the legs once, halfway. Leave the breast alone - the butter's already doing the basting from underneath.
- Tin drying out and smoking? Add a splash of water.
Ayden narrated the whole roast like a nature documentary. Aaron checked the oven light was on. Then checked again.
Step 6 - Check it's cooked
- Push the thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh, not touching the bone.
- You want 75C. That's comfortably past the UK food safety line of 70C for 2 minutes.
- No thermometer? Pierce the thigh where it meets the body. The juices should run clear, with no pink, and the leg should wiggle loosely.
- Not there yet? Back in for 10 minutes and check again.
Cook the chicken to temperature, not the clock. Ovens lie. Chickens vary. A thermometer doesn't care about either.
Aaron read the thermometer twice, then asked me. I said 75. He said "are you sure?" I am never sure.
Step 7 - Rest it, then make the gravy
- Lift the chicken onto a board and rest it for 20 minutes, uncovered. Foil steams the skin soft.
- Squeeze 6-8 roasted garlic cloves out of their skins into the tin and mash them in.
- Spoon off all but about 1 tbsp of fat. Put the tin on a low heat, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
- Whisk in the 300ml stock bit by bit, scraping up the sticky bits, and simmer for 2-3 minutes until it coats a spoon. Sieve, add the resting juices and season.
- Carve and serve with the rest of the soft garlic - squeeze it onto the chicken like butter.
Royal decree: the first slice goes to the princess. Et tu, Tyson? He had the second. Nobody gave it to him.
How long to roast a chicken
Roast a chicken for 15 minutes at 220C (200C fan, gas 7), then 20 minutes per 500g at 190C (170C fan, gas 5) - about 1 hour 25 minutes in total for a 1.7kg bird.
Add 10 minutes if it went in fridge-cold.
| Chicken weight | Total roasting time |
|---|---|
| 1.4kg | 1 hr 10 |
| 1.6kg | 1 hr 20 |
| 1.8kg | 1 hr 25 |
| 2kg | 1 hr 35 |
| 2.5kg | 1 hr 55 |
The times get you close. The thermometer gets you there: 75C in the thickest part of the thigh.
Aaron printed this table out. He's asked if it can be laminated. It can't. It's a website.
In a hurry? Spatchcock the chicken and it cooks in about half the time.
If it goes wrong
Skin pale and soft? Too much liquid in the tin, a wet bird, or foil on top.
Fix: pour off some juices and give it 10 minutes at 220C (200C fan). Next time, pat it drier and keep the foil in the drawer. Pale skin means it's been through a lot. Mostly steam.
Garlic bitter and burnt? It was on top of the skin, not under it.
Fix: scrape off the dark bits. Next time keep the crushed garlic under the skin. Burnt garlic is the only thing Eesha has ever apologised for. And it wasn't her.
Breast dry? It cooked past the point of no return.
Fix: carve it thin and drown it in gravy. Next time take it out at 75C in the thigh. Dry chicken is a gravy delivery system. Every cloud.
Still pink by the thigh? It needs longer, whatever the clock says.
Fix: back in at 190C (170C fan) for 10 minutes, then check again until it's 75C and the juices run clear. The clock is guessing. Aaron is not. Aaron is checking.
Tin smoking and juices burnt black? It dried out, or the tin's too big.
Fix: add a splash of water. Black juices make bitter gravy, so make it with fresh stock instead. Ayden played the smoke alarm a short piano accompaniment. Again.
Gravy lumpy or thin? The stock went in too fast, or it didn't simmer long enough.
Fix: push lumps through a sieve, then simmer for a few more minutes until it coats a spoon. All roads lead to gravy. Some are lumpier than others.
Roast chicken questions people actually ask
The big ones: no foil while it roasts, no garlic in the cavity, and leftovers in the fridge for 2 days at most.
Should you cover a chicken with foil when roasting?
No. Foil traps steam and the skin goes soft. Only cover any bits that brown too fast, and rest it uncovered too.
Foil is for leftovers and for Aaron's packed lunch, which is wrapped like a Christmas present every day.
Should you put garlic inside the chicken?
No. Garlic in the cavity just steams. Put crushed garlic in butter under the skin, and whole cloves in the tin.
Lemon and herbs are the cavity's job. A lemon and garlic roast chicken still has both - they just live on different floors.
How long does roast chicken last in the fridge?
Two days. The Food Standards Agency says to cool leftovers, cover them and get them in the fridge within one to two hours, then eat or freeze them within 2 days.
Tyson says two minutes. Tyson is not the Food Standards Agency.
Can you freeze roast chicken?
Yes. Freeze it within 2 days of cooking. Defrost it in the fridge and eat it within 24 hours, and only reheat it once.
Take it off the bone and freeze it flat in a bag. Aaron labels his. With the date. And the weight. And a drawing.
How do you reheat roast chicken?
Until it's steaming hot all the way through - in the oven, the microwave or straight into a sauce - and only once.
What do you serve with roast chicken?
Roast potatoes, greens and gravy are the classics. Carrots, parsnips and bread sauce if it's a proper Sunday.
Yorkshire puddings with chicken split our house down the middle. Aaron says beef only. Erin issued a royal decree: Yorkshires with everything. The decree stands.
What to do with leftover roast chicken?
Sandwiches, a pie, a curry or a soup - and boil the carcass into stock.
Cover the carcass with water, add an onion, a carrot and a bay leaf and simmer for about an hour, then strain. For the best leftover sandwich, it's cold chicken and homemade aioli. More garlic. Eesha's thrilled.
More garlic? Here's chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, the one-pot version, and how to store garlic so the next bulb doesn't sprout.
Missed a stop? The whole trip's on A History of British Cooking, starting with the Stonehenge pig roast.
Next time on A History of British Cooking: the Vikings, and why they were so sharp.
Now go and conquer something. Start with the chicken.
