All the leaves have turned yellow, red and brown and the days are getting shorter and colder day by day. Autumn is in full bloom and it’s feeling more and more like winter every day. This kind of weather always makes me want to curl up inside with a blanket, a nice cup of tea and a magazine. It also makes me want to cook – the slow kind of food. Soul food.

Last weekend I spent my Sunday in the kitchen preparing the best kind of comfort food I know. A slow roasted chicken with lots of veggies on the side. Today I am sharing the recipe with you and giving one of my Danish readers a chance to win a baker designed by Erik Bakker – stay tuned, I will tell you how to enter later in this post.

A baker (also called a Römertopf) is genius for comfort and winter food. It cooks the food gently and thereby preserving more vitamins and keeping the meat juicy. To me it is the perfect Sunday endeavour. It cooks a big portion, so you have leftovers for the following week – easy meals if you work late.

Slow roasted chicken with veggies

What you need:

• A chicken – preferably a free-range or organic one
• Beet roots
• Carrots
• Golden beets
• Onions
• Red onions
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Fresh rosemary
• A lemon (preferably an organic one as we will use the zest)
• Dark beer

What you do:

Fill up the sink with cold water and leave the baker (both parts) in there for 15 minutes. The clay will absorb the water and later release it as steam while cooking.

Peel all the roots, carrots, onions and garlic. Cut the onions, carrots, beet roots and golden beets into bite size slices.

Fill up the baker with all the onions, carrots, beet roots, golden beets and a handful of garlic cloves and a handful of fresh rosemary. Now pour the dark beer over the veggies.

I like to give the chicken a rinse off before I cook it and dry it off with paper towels. Gently “lift” the skin from the meat all across the breast. Cut out some thin slices of butter and place it under the skin. This will make the breast meat very juicy. Rub the skin with olive oil on the outside.

Give the lemon a good rinse and dry it off. Grate the zest and rub it all over the chicken. Cut the lemon in halves and stuff them into the chicken with some rosemary and a few cloves of garlic.

Place the chicken on top of the veggies and rub the skin with what ever spices you prefer – use salt and pepper as a minimum. I used a nice lemon salt from Mariager Sydesalt. Use food string – or wooden toothpicks like I did – to close the chicken up.

Put the baker with the lid on in a cold oven (this is important! If it is exposed to too much heat to fast, it will break). Turn up the oven to 200 C / 390 F degrees and leave the baker in there for 1,5 hours.

After 1,5 hours you remove the lid and turn on the grill. Let it roast for about 15-20 minutes, but keep an eye on it, and take it out when the skin is golden and crisp.

Cut the chicken into pieces and serve up with a side of veggies. The dark beer will have worked its magic giving the meal just the right winter, comfort food flavour. You can turn the  juice in the baker into a nice gravy if you want. Enjoy!

And now onto the give away – I’ll take this one in Danish as this is only for my Danish readers.

Hvilken ret er du?

Som du sikkert har hørt, så er vi ved at vælge Danmarks nationalret. Men dansk madkultur er jo uendelig varieret og fuld af forskellige smagsnuancer. Derfor har Imerco udviklet en sjov gimmic, hvor du kan teste, hvilken nationalret du er. Du kan i øvrigt også finde opskrifter hos Imerco til alle retterne.

Sammen med Imerco har jeg fået lov til at forkæle en heldig læser med den fine stegeso fra Erik Bakker magen til den, jeg har brugt her i opskriften.

Sådan deltager du:

• Test dig selv lige her
• Kom tilbage og læg en kommentar med svaret om, hvilken ret du er, senest den 21. november kl.12.

Herefter trækker jeg lod om en vinder og giver den heldige direkte besked.

Jeg tog selv testen og blev en bolle i karry! Det er dæleme sjovt, eftersom jeg aldrig i mit liv har lavet boller i karry. Jeg glæder mig til at høre, hvad du bliver. Du kan jo evt. udfordre familien og se, om I er enige :)

*This post is sponsored by Imerco. As always thank you for reading my blog and supporting my sponsors. They make it possible for me to do what I love.

© that nordic feeling

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