Pot-roast chicken with potatoes, bacon, garlic and thyme

It’s simple, really. All you need is top-notch, seasonal ingredients and an effortless recipe

Ingredients (serves 4)

50g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 fine-quality, free-range 1.5kg chicken (dressed weight) with giblets, if possible
130g pancetta or other bacon, cubed
12 cloves of garlic, peeled
2-3 generous splashes of vermouth
1kg potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into large chunks
5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme
300ml good chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 150C/330F/Gas Mark 2.

Using a deep cast-iron pot with a lid (an oval Le Creuset is ideal), melt the butter with the olive oil. Season the chicken all over and inside, then slowly brown its surfaces in the fat, turning the bird over and around for about 15 minutes. Remove to a plate. Add the pancetta and garlic to the pot and allow both to sizzle and gild slightly, then pour in the vermouth, which will froth and splutter. Introduce the potatoes now and turn with a spoon through the fatty residue until well coated. Stir in the thyme sprigs and stock and return the chicken to the pot, burying it deep among the potatoes. Bring the whole affair up to a bubbling simmer over a low heat, cover and transfer to the oven.

Cook for 1-1½ hours, until the potatoes are very tender indeed; the chicken will also be well cooked, but that is how it is meant to be in this instance.

Serve direct from the pot at the table, carefully lifting the chicken onto a hot serving dish for jointing. Spoon some of the potatoes – together with copious amounts of juice – around each serving.