Roast chicken with roast potatoes and homemade basil pesto

It felt like the first day of spring today and I had my lunch sitting on a bench with the warm sunshine on my face. The start of things to come hopefully. Tonight, tea felt summery with a lovely basil pesto. The same recipe as the coriander pesto, substituting coriander for basil. I can't over emphasise the importance of the homemade pesto in this meal. It really does make all the difference and takes minutes to blitz in the food processor. I would say it is worth the effort of making it. I invited my parent's around for a meal, as this is such a nice meal to share. The potatoes cooking around the chicken absorb all the lovely juices and they are nearly chewy in texture, really delicious. This is a recipe from "Jamie's Dinners".

Ingredients
Serve 4 - 6
2kg chicken
2kg potatoes
1 lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper


Method
Heat the oven to 220C.
Parboil the potatoes with a whole lemon in the water to give some flavour. Drain the spuds, then remove the lemon and prick it with a knife a few times before pushing it inside the chicken. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season. Then roast the chicken for 30 minutes at 220C. After the 30 minutes throw the parboiled potatoes in the tray and put the roasting tray back in the oven for an hour, until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are browned. I would say that putting the lemon in meant the chicken needed longer to cook. I would not bother in future. Remove the chicken from the oven, and leave to rest while the potatoes carry on cooking. Maybe get rid of some of the juices in the roasting tin at this stage. Serve with green salad and the delicious pesto.