Sunday Roast Chicken and Caesar Salad

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Strip the herb leaves into a pestle and mortar, add the unpeeled garlic cloves and a pinch of sea salt and give it a good bash. Muddle in 3 tablespoons of rapeseed oil and a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Use a large sharp knife to carefully cut down the back of the chicken, so you can open it out flat. Place it in a snug-fitting roasting tray and rub the garlicky herb mixture all over it, getting into all the nooks and crannies. Roast the chicken for 50 minutes, or until golden and cooked through and the juices run clear. Meanwhile, for the creamy dressing, peel the garlic and place in a small food processor or blender. Add the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and sardine fillet, if using, then grate in the cheese. Add the oil and the yoghurt, then blitz until smooth, before tasting and seasoning to perfection with lemon juice and black pepper. Pour into a bowl ready to serve. Trim and click apart the lettuce leaves. Leave all the pretty inner leaves whole, but finely slice the larger, frumpy leaves and the stalk, then give it all a wash and dry in a salad spinner. Arrange on a serving platter. Peel the carrot, then use a speed peeler to make delicate ribbons of carrot over the platter. Repeat with the cucumber and apple. Chop or tear up your bread into chunky pieces. For the last 15 minutes of the chicken’s cooking time, use tongs to move the bird to sit directly on the top bars of the oven. Scatter the bread into the tray of juices, lay the bacon on top, and sit the tray underneath the chicken to crisp up and catch even more of the juices as it finishes cooking. Move the chicken to a board to rest for a few minutes. Then drizzle some dressing over the salad, scatter the crunchy croutons and bacon on top, and serve everything at the table, adding more dressing to your plates as you tuck in.