Herb-Crusted Roast Chicken

Your oven needs to be at about 220 degrees Celsius so get that sorted.

I love going out to my garden with Joss and a pair of scissors to choose which herbs to put in our meals. She loves it too, and the care with which she handles the plants is gorgeous to see.

So, if you've got them in your garden - grab a pair of scissors and go and get:

A handful each of rosemary, thyme and parsley.
Bring them inside and wash them, then pull the leaves off the stalks of the rosemary and thyme. Place all the leaves and parsley in a pile and start hacking into them with a delightfully big knife. Here's your perfect opportunity to imagine that you're Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson etc and experiment with developing your knife skills.

When the herbs are chopped into little pieces, get 30g of butter (if you're dairy free just use olive oil), two cloves of garlic and a couple of pinches of salt and cut them into the herbs. Eventually you will have made the srummiest herb butter (or oil) you've ever had.

Take the chicken out of the packet and place it in a roasting dish, breast side down.

Roll up your sleeves, call your children into the kitchen, and each take a couple of small handfuls of herb butter and schmoosh the butter ALL over that chicken.

Place it in the oven for 20mins at 220, then turn it down to 150. After about 60mins at 150, turn the chicken over and brown off the breast-side for about 20mins (still at 150).

Check that the chicken is cooked by poking a knife into the leg-joint and seeing if the juices run clear. When it's cooked take it out of the oven and let it rest covered with some baking paper and a tea towel for about 20mins.