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Roast chicken stuffed with lemony goats’ cheese and tarragon
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Kris Kirkham
Roast chicken stuffed with lemony goats’ cheese and tarragon
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time:
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
579Kcal
Fat
26gr
Saturates
14gr
Carbs
1gr
Sugars
1gr
Fibre
0gr
Protein
81gr
Salt
1.6gr
Debora Robertson
Debora Robertson is a food writer, editor, and an inveterate kitchen botherer. She lives in London, where she is always on the hunt for new things to eat, blogs at Love and a Licked Spoon
See more of Debora Robertson’s recipes
Debora Robertson
Debora Robertson is a food writer, editor, and an inveterate kitchen botherer. She lives in London, where she is always on the hunt for new things to eat, blogs at Love and a Licked Spoon
See more of Debora Robertson’s recipes
Ingredients
For the lemony goats’ cheese
- 150g soft goats’ cheese (we used French mild goats’ cheese)
- 4 garlic cloves, finely grated or crushed
- ½ x 20g pack tarragon, leaves chopped, plus extra to serve
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the chicken
- 1 large chicken, approximately 2kg
- 2 lemons
- 30g butter, softened
- 100ml white wine
- 450ml fresh chicken stock
Step by step
Get ahead
You can make the lemony goats' cheese up to a couple of days before you want to cook the chicken; keep it sealed in the fridge.
- Remove the chicken from the fridge 1 hour before cooking. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6.
- In a bowl, beat together all the ingredients for the lemony goat's cheese. Use your hands to carefully separate the skin from the breast of the chicken, and spread the goat's cheese mixture under the skin, squidging it around to get an even layer.
-
Juice one of the lemons and sprinkle into the chicken cavity then rub the softened butter all over the chicken. Put the chicken in a roasting tin and season well. Cut the remaining lemon in half and put the halves in the tin alongside the chicken.TipTo ensure crispy skin, remove the packaging from the bird up to 1 day before you plan to cook it, pat dry with kitchen paper, and put the bird in a roasting tin in the fridge. Drying out the skin really helps it achieve golden perfection when roasted.
- Roast the chicken in the oven, basting every 20 minutes or so, for 1 hour 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the leg is pierced.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and put it on a warmed plate, loosely covered in foil, to rest for 15 minutes.
- While the chicken is resting, make the gravy. Put the roasting tin onto the stove over a medium heat and pour in the white wine. Stir vigorously, scraping up all of the tasty brown bits on the bottom of the pan, and let the wine simmer until reduced to a glaze. Add the stock and simmer for about 10 minutes or until reduced by about a third. Check the seasoning and strain into a warm jug.
- Scatter the chicken with a little tarragon if you like, carve and serve with the gravy and your chosen veg.