Ingredients
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1 large organic chicken (1kg)
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2-3 tablespoons rooibos stokkies (dried whole rooibos leaves)
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1 large lemon
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40ml olive oil
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3 sprigs rosemary, leaves finely chopped
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3 cloves of garlic, crushed
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Coarse ground sea salt and black pepper
Directions
Rinse the chicken and pat dry with kitchen towel.
Spoon the rooibos stokkies into the chicken’s cavity.
Zest and juice the lemon, and stuff one half of the juiced lemon inside the chicken to close it up.
Use damp kitchen twine to truss up the chicken’s legs to secure the stuffing.
In a mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice and zest, garlic and rosemary and season to taste.
Place the chicken in a roasting dish and spoon over the marinade, being careful to poke the garlic and herbs into the pockets between breast and skin.
Set the trussed chicken over indirect coals made with fragrant wood and smoke the bird for an hour or until the chicken is cooked through but still juicy.
Snip the twine, carve the chicken and serve with roasted sweet potato and a few glasses of Alto Estate Blend.
Recipe Note
If cooking in an oven, set the chicken breast-side up in a roasting dish and pour 250ml of water or white wine around the bird. Cover the entire dish with foil and roast in a preheated 220°C oven for 20 minutes before removing the foil and turning the oven down to 180°C for the remaining 40 minutes. The wine in the bottom of the dish will thicken with the roasting juices and get syrupy – perfect for mopping up with fresh bread. If halfway through cooking the dish requires more liquid, simply add in more wine or a little water and continue to roast.
