Jamie Oliver's best roast chicken

For 15 years, Jamie has been inspiring people all over the world to cook and eat better food and for him it all started with mum.

In the second part of our exclusive with Jamie he talked to Sunday Night about love, life and starting out as a professional chef.

"From the age of five I remember Mother’s Day you know making little cards for mum. It’s a nice little opportunity to say thank you obviously as you get older instead of cards and chocolate maybe cook them a nice meal," Jamie told Sunday Night.

Jamie was learning the trade under his mother's roof but now he celebrates cooking with his own family on Mother's Day.

"Jules is an amazing mum, really, really good you know she’s sort of a bit of a ninja really probably too good a mum. I want her to be less good, you know, I want her to save a bit more time for me."

So what is his gift this Mother's Day? The ultimate roast chicken, and one of Jamie's favourite recipes.

JAMIE OLIVER'S PERFECT ROAST CHICKEN

Ingredients

• One 2 1/2-3 lb. free-range chicken
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 small handfuls of fresh herbs (basil, parsley, marjoram), finely chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 lemon, halved
• 4 bay leaves, torn
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Preparation

Preheat the oven and a roasting tray to 425 F. Wash the chicken inside and out, and pat it as dry as possible with paper towels. Some people remove the wishbone, but I like to leave it in and later make a wish.

Rub the cavity with salt; then, being very careful, grab the skin at the tip of the chicken breasts, making sure that it doesn’t rip, and pull up gently. With your other hand, gently separate the skin from the meat of the breast.

It’s normally connected by a little bit of tissuey-type stuff, and you can either leave this attached in the middle and make two little tunnels either side, or you can try to cut away the middle. Sprinkle a little salt down the gaps that you have made and push in the chopped herbs. Drizzle in a little olive oil.

I don’t always stuff the chicken but when I do I generally go with lemon, bay and rosemary, which I push into the cavity at this point. Pull the skin of the chicken breast forward so that none of the actual flesh is exposed, tuck the little winglets under and tie up as firmly as possible with kitchen twine.

To me, the perfect roast chicken has tender moist breast meat, crisp skin and, dare I say it, overcooked thigh meat. So at this point, simply slash across each thigh about 3 or 4 times and rub in some of the leftover herbs, which allows the heat to penetrate directly into the thigh meat, enabling it to cook faster.

With your hand, rub a little olive oil into the skin of the chicken and season very generously with salt and pepper. Remove the hot tray from the oven and add a little oil.

Put the chicken on one side, breast side down on the tray, and put back into the oven. Allow to cook for 5 minutes, then turn it over on to the other side, breast side down. Cook for another 5 minutes and then place the chicken on its back. Cook for 1 hour.

Serving Size: 4

Woolworths and Jamie Oliver has also announced the launch of Created with Jamie this week, a new range of healthy and convenient ready-to-cook meals and snacks.

"I love being in the kitchen but as a dad, I know how difficult it can be to find the time to create nutritious, affordable meals from scratch every day of the week."

"Now even the time-poor can feel inspired through my easy-to-cook fresh food range for the whole family. It’s essentially the kind of fresh meals I cook for my family on a regular basis but even more easy."

Enter our competition to win a month's supply of Created with Jamie meals!