Honey-roast chicken with roast sweet potatoes

You may recognise this shot as one of the rolling images on our home page which were taken by photographer Jason Ingram and styled by Genevieve Taylor. The dish was so delicious I had to pass on the recipe which comes from Louise Walker's Aga Roast.

You don't have to have an Aga to make it, by the way - you can cook it in a conventional oven.

Serves 6

1.75kg/4lb chicken

1 orange

1 bunch spring onions

110g/4oz honey

3 tablespoons olive oil

1⁄2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 teaspoons cumin

Salt and pepper

1kg / 21⁄4 lbs sweet potatoes

1 tablespoon chopped coriander

Line a roasting tin with Bake-O-Glide. Put in the chicken.

Grate the rind from the orange and put in a basin. Finely chop half the bunch of spring onions. Add the honey, oil, cloves, paprika, coriander, cumin and salt and pepper. Use half the mixture to brush the chicken inside and out.

Slice the orange and chop the remaining onion. Use half to put in the chicken cavity and sprinkle the remaining onion over the chicken and the remaining orange slices on the chicken breast.

Hang the tin on the third set of runners from the top of the roasting oven and calculate the roasting time at 20 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 20 minutes. (Gen also put some foil over the bird halfway through to stop the sweet marinade over-browning.)

Meanwhile, peel and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks and toss with the remaining honey mixture. After the first 30 minutes of roasting the chicken add the potatoes round the bird. Remove the orange slices if browning too much.

Roast for the remaining time. The chicken should have a dark golden skin.

Test that the chicken is cooked and then remove the chicken to a warm plate and scatter the coriander over the sweet potatoes.

Serve the sweet potatoes with any pan juices and chunkily carved chicken.

Serve with a plain green salad to offset the sweetness of the chicken and sweet potatoes.

Conventional cooking: Roast at 190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Aga Roast by Louise Walker is published by Absolute Press.

What to drink: You need something with a touch of sweetness to cope with the sweetness and spiciness of the marinade. I'd suggest a Barossa Valley or South African Shiraz or a Grenache or, if you prefer a white, a full-bodied Viognier.

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