Roast Chicken Dinner

This is a British "Sunday Roast" tradition, and every British cook has a version of it. This is mine, I hope you enjoy it.

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   This recipe is not difficult, but the timing makes it harder. It's the kind of meal which would benefit from a Gantt chart. I'm going to describe it in the right order, please let me know if it works for you.
   
   See note below on carving a chicken - best figure this out before you start cooking, so you aren't trying to learn from YouTube while serving dinner...
   
   You will also need to prepare some vegetables to eat with it. I'm not going to cover that here, but if I were cooking, I would roast a mix of potatoes, carrots and parsnips, and then maybe some green beans or broccoli. You can do your favourites. The chicken cooks for at least an hour, so this is a good time to do that.
   
   Start with the gravy, as follows:
   
   1. In a medium sized saucepan, put some oil in the bottom and fry the chicken giblets on a medium heat for 2-3 mins. Don't worry we're going to throw these away eventually, but they are good for the flavour.
   
   2. Add the onions and fry for a further 2-3 mins until starting to brown.
   
   3. Add the water and other vegetables (Not the cornflour), bring to the boil.
   
   4. Boil gently for about 2 hours, while the rest of the meal cooks. When the liquid has reduced to about half the quantity, switch it off.
   
   5. Pour the liquid through a sieve into another saucepan, removing the giblets and vegetables. These can be thrown away now - we are interested in the liquid only.
   
   6. Come back to this later - for now skip ahead to make the stuffing. When the chicken has been removed from the oven and is "resting", it's time to finish the gravy.
   
   7. In a small cup mix the cornflour with some water until it is a smooth liquid with no lumps.
   
   8. If there are juices in the chicken baking tray, pour this into the liquid and mix.
   
   8. Pour the liquid into a small saucepan and add the cornflour mix. Heat gently for about 10 mins until it starts to thicken - your gravy should have a syrupy consistency.
   
   Now make the stuffing:
   
   1. Fry the onion for 2-3 minutes until soft.
   
   2. Mix the onion, sage, sausage meat, apple and breadcrumbs and salt and pepper with your hands until thoroughly mixed.
   
   3. Put half the stuffing into the body of the chicken, but do not fill it more than half - there should be an air gap so it cooks properly.
   
   4. Put the rest into a baking tray or porcelain dish and cover with foil. This needs to cook for about 30 mins covered (together with the chicken) and then about 20 mins open, so it goes crispy on top.
   
   5. See which you like best - the soft stuffing cooked inside the chicken, or the crispy stuff in the baking tray.
   
   Now for the easy bit, cooking the chicken!
   
   1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees (180 in a fan oven)
   
   2. Put the chicken into a deep baking tray, legs up.
   
   3. Brush the olive oil across the breast and legs of the chicken, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
   
   4. Put it in the oven. The cooking time is calculated based on the weight - 20 mins + 20 mins/500g. For example, a 1.5kg bird should cook for 1h20.
   
   5. While the chicken is cooking, every 30 mins or so, get a spoon and pickup some of the fat from the bottom of the tray and pour over the chicken (this is called basting).
   
   6. Cook your vegetables, remember that the chicken will sit for 15 mins after it comes out of the oven.
   
   7. Take the chicken out, wrap it in foil and leave it to "rest" for 15 mins. This is supposed to improve the taste.
   
   8. Go back and finish the gravy in this time.
   
   To serve, you will need to carve the chicken. If you don't know how to do this, there are plenty of YouTube videos, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msscPphcLyo
   
   Put some slices of "white" meat from the breast and "red" meat from the legs/wings on each plate, with stuffing, and vegetables. Put the gravy in a jug so people can pour it over themselves.
   
   Priatnava Appetitsa!