Madhouse recipe : Lemon gravy chicken

This dish was inspired by a meal created by the lovely lady we stayed with during our three day school trip to London last month. She made a regular roast chicken but put a whole lemon in the cavity of the bird before putting it in the oven. During cooking, all the juice came out and mingled in with the gravy - something she wasn't quite expecting but it worked very well. I recreated it with chicken thighs for a quick and simple midweek dinner.

 Lemon gravy chicken

ingredients :

6 chicken thighs

3 onions, quartered

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

seasoning : salt, pepper, rosemary 

lemon-infused olive oil (or regular olive oil)

lemon juice

gravy granules

I found a pouch of rosemary rock salt on my spice rack, but you could use any herbs you like really - thyme or oregano would work well too. The lemon-infused Pomoro olive oil has a wonderfully deep lemon flavour but you could use regular olive oil and just add lemon juice.

Put the onions and garlic in a roasting tin with the chicken thighs. Sprinkle with rosemary salt and pepper and drizzle with lemon-infused olive oil (or regular olive oil). Put in the oven at 180° for 45 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear when you push a knife into the thickest part of the meat.

Remove the chicken thighs to a plate with tongs. Pour the cooking juices along with the onions and garlic into a saucepan. Add boiling water and gravy granules and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Taste and add an extra squeeze of lemon juice if it's not lemony enough.

This would make a lovely change to the usual Sunday roast. Serve with potatoes or rice and a side salad or vegetables. Make sure you drizzle lashings of that gravy all over everything !