For 8 people you will need:

2 chickens,

1 lemon,

5 sprigs fresh thyme,

90g butter,

4 heads fresh garlic,

1.5kg small potatoes,

salt and pepper

Season the chickens inside and out. Wash the lemon, remove the zest and cut the lemon in half. Take the leaves off the sprigs of thyme. Mix the softened butter with the lemon zest, thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Cut the bulbs of garlic in half horizontally.

Carefully lift the skin away from the chickens and spread about 2 tablespoons of the butter mixture over the chicken flesh. Put a half-lemon inside each of the chickens together with a half-bulb of garlic and the thyme stalks. Close the chickens using wooden skewers. Place the chickens upwards and side by side in an oiled ovenproof dish and cook for 10 mins in an oven preheated to 220˚C.

Then turn the chickens over and cook for a further 10 mins. Meanwhile, wash the potatoes and scrub their skins before cutting them into quarters lengthways. Turn the chickens over again, add potatoes and the remaining half-heads of garlic and baste the potatoes and garlic with the remaining butter mixture. Lower the oven temperature to 200˚C. and cook for 45 mins.

Baste the potatoes and garlic with the cooking juices and turn the potatoes. The chickens are cooked when the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the legs. Take the dish out of the oven, cut the chickens into quarters and place on a serving dish together with the potatoes and garlic.

Serve with a green salad.