Annie Bell's Herby Buttery Chicken with Golden Roasties

Choose a mixture of fresh herbs (for example parsley, chives, chervil, tarragon). Blend the finely chopped herbs with 50g of the butter and 1&#8260,,2 tsp each salt and pepper in a bowl. Starting at the neck end of the chicken, slip your fingers beneath the skin to loosen it over each breast.

Smooth the butter and herb mixture over the breasts and pat the skin back into place, spreading the butter out evenly. Rub the remaining butter over the chicken skin and season.
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7.

Place the chicken in a roasting dish that holds it snugly (lightly secure the legs with string if you wish). Pour the wine into the base and add water to a depth of about 2cm. Roast for 50 minutes. There should be plenty of juices left at the end, but check halfway through and add a little more water if necessary.
Transfer the chicken to a plate to rest for 15 minutes, tipping the juices from inside the bird into the roasting pan. Skim and discard the surface fat from the cooking juices.

Reheat the juices on the hob, then pour through a sieve into a jug. To serve, carve the chicken, adding any juices from carving to the gravy. Serve with golden roast potatoes and salad leaves or green veg.

For golden roasties: Peel and cut up potatoes. Cook in boiling salted water for 8 minutes. Drain in a sieve and allow the steam to evaporate, then return to the pan and shake roughly so that the outsides turn fluffy and flaky.

Clarify butter by heating it gently and then pouring off the clear yellow liquid, discarding any white residue left behind.

Tip the potatoes into a roasting tray, trickle over the clarified butter and 2 tbsp olive oil and scatter over some flakes of sea salt.

Roast the potatoes at the same time as the chicken for 65 minutes, placing them on the lower shelf at first, then moving them to the centre of the oven when you remove the chicken. Turn the potatoes at least once during cooking. They should be evenly gold all over, the colour of a crisp.