I love to make a good roast. Here’s my tips for lemon,  thyme roast chicken with vegetables and mozzarella

1.  Stuff the chicken with lemon and thyme. Peel a couple of garlic cloves and rub the chicken all over then chop them up very finely and sprinkle all over the chicken.

2. Now here’s the most important tip to a great roast chicken. Place the chicken upside down (breast facing down) in the the roasting tray. This will cause the juices from the bird to flow into the breast meat and will stop the meat drying out.

3. Prepare your vegetables. I like parsnips. Peel them and cut them lengthways creating two equal parts and repeat twice again until the parsnip is in eights. Then chop the pieces in half. This should give you nice thick parsnip strips. I also like to cook peppers and I prefer red to green as they are sweeter. Cut the top off the pepper and scoop out the inside. Then cut into thin strips.

4. For the potatoes. Peel them and cut them into reasonable sizes. The smaller you make them the easier they will be to cook. Put the potatoes in a pan and boil for ten minutes and add salt. Meanwhile add some fat to the roasting tin and let it heat up. Drain the potatoes with a colander and sprinkle with flour. Add the potatoes to the roasting tin along with the parsnips and leave to roast. (I add the peppers later so they don’t get over done and the peppers with about 35 minutes left)

5. 15 minutes before it is ready bring the roasting tray out. Turn the chicken over. At this point I recommend covering your chicken, parsnips and potatoes in honey. Add chopped cherry tomatoes and slices of mozzarella on top. Make sure to add enough mozzarella (two basic packs from sainsbury’s is about right, there’s no point using better quality buffalo mozzarella in this instance). Place back in the oven and roast for a further 15 minutes.

6. Finally remove chicken and vegetables from the oven and leave to rest. Pour flour and stock into the juices remaining in the roasting tray to create the gravy. Put on a very low heat for two minutes. Serve delicious chicken with vegetables and gravy!