Full of herbs roast chicken with refreshing yoghurt sauce

Roast chicken can't really go wrong regardless the season or the recipe each one of us follows. It is a very family-friendly meal and there are so many variations and so many different ingredients that can be used to cook with or accompany the chicken. Here we have a really fragrant roast and to make it even more pleasant we accompany it with a refreshing yoghurt sauce
 

Adapted from a recipe of "Cook Book" magazine
of "ETHNOS" newspaper (2010)

Ingredients (for 4 people):
1 chicken (about 2Kg)
2 lemons, the juice and the zest
2 tbsp of butter, soften
1-2 cloves of garlic, mashed
1 heaped tbsp of mild mustard
a few sprigs of thyme, fresh or dried
a few sprigs of rosemary, fresh or dried (I used oregano)
salt
pepper
1 large glass of white dry wine (optional -my addition)

For the yoghurt sauce:
2 pots of Greek yoghurt (about 175-200gr. each)
1 heaped tbsp of basil pesto
1 tsp of mild mustard
1 tsp of finely minced garlic (or dried)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Rinse the chicken well and cut off the excess fat in various parts of the chicken. Remove and clean the chicken innards of their membrane and fat. Rinse very well under running water, pat dry with kitchen paper and cut in half horizontally. *** If you don't like chicken liver, heart etc just discard them.

In a bowl put the butter, the mustard, the garlic, some thyme, some rosemary (or oregano), salt, pepper, the juice and the zest of the lemons and beat with a whisk to blend well.

With a brush pass the chicken on all sides with the herb mixture and then brush inside the cavity as well.

Scatter a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary (or oregano) in a roasting pan and pour over with the wine. Place the chicken in the middle of the pan and around it arrange the innards (if used) with the cut side down.

Put in the oven and bake for 1 ½ hour, basting from time to time the chicken with its marinade.

In the meantime, put in a bowl the yoghurt with the pesto, the mustard and the garlic and beat with a whisk until the ingredients are blended.

Take the chicken out of the oven and leave it to settle for 10 minutes. Cut in portions and place on a platter with the sauce served seperately in a bowl