Sunday Roast - Student Style!

I'm baaaccckkk! Sorry for the enormous delay in posting, but I've been extraordinarily busy lately with my new job (finally I'm employed again!) and exciting internship :D

But enough about me, let's talk about the classic Sunday Roast. I expect most of you remember winter-time including a few old-fashioned roasts at home, a luxury we've been forced to forgo since moving away from those money-trees we call parents (just joking Mum and Dad!). However, since securing a little cash from my new job, Hungry Boyfriend and I decided we'd splurge on a whole chicken and see if we could whip up a good old Sunday Roast.

While you'd expect roasts to be complex, with all the stuffing nonsense and trying to avoid watery gravy, I managed to cruise through my roast (and a bottle of wine) surprisingly easily. All you need is a good recipe (I merged two together) and soon enough, you'll be looking like this!

I've done a chicken roast, as they're often the cheapest and served it with potatoes, pumpkin and carrot. As with all my recipes, please feel free to mess around with it, throw in a few individualised pieces and let me know how it turns out!

Spiced Roast Chicken with Potatoes, Pumpkin and Carrot

Feeds: Myself and Hungry Boyfriend to bursting point

Cooking Time: 70 - 80 minutes (but don't let that scare you!)

Total Cost: $9.65

Ingredients:
- 1 small whole chicken, roughly 1kg ($6)
- 3 medium potatoes ($1.50)
- 1/2 small butternut pumpkin, roughly 250g (90c - $1.70/400g)
- 1 carrot (30c)


Spice Rub (pictured):
- 1 teaspoon mild chilli powder (less than 5c)
- 1 teaspoon paprika (less than 5c)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin (less than 5c)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (less than 5c)
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper (less than 5c)

Gravy:
- 3 teaspoons instant gravy* (roughly 65c - one tin costs $2and you'll use slightly less than a third)
- 1 cup boiling water
- Pan juices from the chicken
- Roughly 1-2 tablespoons plain flour, to thicken (less than 5c)

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius.

2. Wash and peel potatoes and pumpkin. Chop the potatoes into quarters and the pumpkin into similarly-sized chunks. Slice the carrot in half crossways, then lengthways. Set the pumpkin and carrot aside in a large mixing bowl and place the potatoes in a saucepan of water to boil**.

3. While the potatoes are boiling, combine the spices in a small bowl. Remove packaging from the chicken and pat dry with paper towel. Using your fingertips, rub the spices onto the skin (I enlisted Hungry Boyfriend to do this for me :P) You should have a little left, but don't worry if you don't.

Spice Rub

4. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan and put into the oven. Since this chicken is only 1kg, it will take about 50 - 60 minutes to cook. If you're cooking with a larger chicken, you'll want to leave it longer.

Pre-Roasted Chicken with Spice Rub

5. By now, the potatoes should be boiled enough to be slightly soft, but not cooked through. Drain, rinse with cold water and place in the mixing bowl with the other veggies.

6. Splash a little oil (roughly 1 tablespoon) over the veggies and stir through the remaining spice mix. If you didn't have any left over, just mix in some more cumin, paprika and chilli powder.

7. Place vegetables on a lined baking tray and put in the oven. The vegetables should take about 40 -50 minutes and, in this case, be ready around the same time as the chicken.

8. To tell if the chicken is ready, poke a sharp knife into the thigh joint. If the juices running out are clear, the chicken in cooked. If the juices are a little pink, the chicken will need a little longer. When your chicken is cooked, remove from the pan and place on a chopping board for carving.

Yum!

9. Combine instant gravy powder, boiling water and the juices in the bottom of the roasting pan in a small saucepan over a low heat and whisk until thickened to a desirable consistency. If you think your gravy is too watery, sprinkle in a little flour at a time until you're happy with it.

Instant Gravy Powder = Worthwhile Investment

10. By now, your potatoes should be lovely and crispy. Take them out of the oven and serve with your roast chicken with gravy poured over the top.

 Carving the Chicken

Viola! 

*Instant gravy powder is a worthwhile investment. The tin pictured above set me back $2 and it saved me ridiculous amounts of trouble. However, I do recommend adding a little extra flour for thickening, as it's quite watery by itself.

**The reason you boil the potatoes at the beginning is to get rid of that horrible starchiness. It seems like an unnecessary extra step, but it's well worth it.

So there you have it! Easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy Sunday Roast! Even the dishes don't need much of clean ;)

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some more easy, cheap and tasty eats. Best of luck in the kitchen!

Lots of Love,
(broke) Masterchef Mel