A whole roast chicken with buttery sage and onion stuffing balls and old-fashioned clove-infused bread sauce.
Prep
25 mins
Cook
1h 30m
Servings
4
Per serving
£3.15
Difficulty
medium
This is the classic Sunday chicken dinner most of us grew up with, right down to the bread sauce studded with cloves - a dish that divides opinion but always disappears first off the table in my house.
Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan). Mash half the butter with the chopped sage, season, and rub over and under the chicken skin. Place a whole sage sprig and half the diced onion inside the cavity.
Roast the chicken for 80-90 minutes, basting halfway, until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced. Rest for 15 minutes.
For the stuffing, melt the remaining butter and gently soften the rest of the diced onion for 8 minutes. Mix with 100g of the breadcrumbs, a little of the chopped sage, the egg and seasoning, then roll into 8 balls.
Bake the stuffing balls alongside the chicken for the final 25 minutes of cooking, until golden.
For the bread sauce, put the milk, clove-studded onion and bay leaf in a saucepan and bring almost to the boil. Take off the heat, cover, and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
Strain out the onion and bay leaf, return the milk to a low heat, and whisk in the remaining 50g breadcrumbs and stock cube. Simmer gently for 5 minutes until thick and creamy, seasoning to taste.
Carve the chicken and serve with the stuffing balls and warm bread sauce.