Roast chicken dinner

It's a favourite for many of us, but roast chicken can be full of fat and kilojoules. We show you how to cut the fat and keep the flavour.

Instructions

Step 1 Preheat oven to 180ºC. Remove excess fat from chicken. Rub skin with crushed garlic. Fill cavity with herbs and lemon pieces, or make stuffing (see below). Place in oven bag. Tie bag. Pierce to let the steam out. Place in an oven dish.

Step 2 Cook for about 1 hour 40 minutes or until juices run clear when chicken breast is pierced.

Step 3 Remove from oven, rest for 5 minutes. Cut a corner off the bag and allow juices to empty into a jug. Remove skin before serving chicken.

With stuffing

Step 1 In a bowl, combine all stuffing ingredients.

Step 2 Fill chicken cavity and cook as above.

Serve with Healthy gravy and Garlic roast vegetables.

How they compare

Traditional roast chicken dinner
Total energy per serve 3420kJ
Total fat per serve 51g (18g saturated fat)

HFG roast chicken dinner
Total energy per serve 2320kJ
Total fat per serve 25g (7g saturated fat)

Tips for a healthy roast chicken

• Use oven bags to keep chicken moist without added fat. Drain juice and save for gravy (remove fat first).
• Increase flavour with garlic, fresh herbs or lemon. Or make a stuffing.
• Remove skin before serving – most of the fat is found under the skin. A lot of this fat melts through the chicken and into the juices during cooking but there is still a significant amount that clings to the skin.
• Cook lots of vegetables. Leave skin on where possible, spray or brush with oil and cook separately from the chicken. To shorten cooking time, partly cook first in boiling water and drain thoroughly before roasting.
• Make gravy the low-fat way. Juices that collect in an oven bag can have up to 100g fat. If the juices are used as they are to make gravy, that’s an extra 10-25g of mostly saturated fat per serve.