I think I was nine when I cooked my first chicken. We had a small oven, like a microwave, so it was very easy for me to look inside and see when the chicken was crispy and juicy. In Spain, there are a lot of places (pollerías) that sell good-quality whole roast chickens to take away – they’re very popular, and you often see families queueing up to get their chicken. Sometimes my parents would pick one up on a Sunday, on their way back from dancing, when it was too late to cook. When I cooked my chicken, I added beer and white wine and lemon. You don’t taste the alcohol: the beer, wine and lemon combine with the juices of the chicken to make a delicious sauce. You can eat a whole loaf of bread by dipping it into this sauce. After I made it, I remember my father saying, ‘How can she make chicken so good?’ Three or four weeks later I tried again and it went wrong. I don’t know why. But I was very disappointed. It’s a good lesson to realize that it’s not always easy to get it right …
Preheat your oven to 180–190°C.
To spatchcock your chicken, cut along either side of the backbone with sharp kitchen scissors. Open the chicken out and press down on it to flatten, then turn round and press down again. Rub the olive oil into the chicken skin and season.
Squash the cloves of garlic and place in the bottom of a high-sided roasting tray with the bay leaves and thyme. Put the chicken on top.
Roast for 25 minutes, then mix the beer, wine and lemon juice together and pour into the tray. Cook for another 20 minutes, continuing to baste the chicken every 5–7 minutes, leaving the skin to crisp for the last 10 minutes.