Roast Chicken with Baked Potato, Sweet Potato and Fennel Mush (by G)

Today I was looking to do a simple roast chicken meal - it turned out to be a bit more complicated than I was hoping for but the result was suitably rustic.

I brushed a raw chicken with garlic butter than dusted it with salt and white pepper then put it in an oven bag along with some chopped onion, garlic and sage - oh, and I shoved a hot lemon up her back passage.  The bird was enormous so I consulted a few sources as to how long I should cook it - they all mostly agreed that 2.5 hours at about 190 deg C should do it. Unfortunately that overdid it, but that is better than the alternative.

The potatoes both sweet and plain were roasted in the oven for about an hour - I freaked out when they were still hard after that time so I blitzed them in the microwave. The regular potatoes got a topping of diced ham hock, gruyere cheese and sour cream. The sweet potato got a simple topping of garlic butter.

The fennel mush was nothing new, onions, garlic and fennel stewed in chicken style stock - I did add the remainder of the cheese and ham hock in there.

I also made a chicken gravy by making a butter/flour roux and adding chicken style stock - I also added some parsley for something different. It was probably the best thing on the plate.