Roast Chicken

I salt the skin liberally the night before then put it in the fridge overnight with skin exposed. I also cook to 70 degrees c internal temp, starting at 160 then giving a blast at 210 for 15 mins at the end.

When I can be bothered I also use the butter under the skin method as mentioned above.
 
HeadlessChicken said:
Are you doing a full traditional roast?

If so IMO I would resist using anything too fragrant (your cumins, corianders etc).


For the perfect roast chicken I:


1) Brine the chicken overnight. Use a 5% brine. So if you puth the chicken in a large bowl and it takes 4 litres to top up with cold water, dissolve 200g salt in the water beforehand. Sit chicken in bowl in fridge overnight, or as long as you have.

This *really* makes a chicken in my experience.

2) Microwave a lemon for 30 secs. jab with fork and stuff up chickens bum.

3) Add thyme, oregano and sage (all chopped) to some unsalted butter. Be liberal, get it everywhere.

4) Roast on a veg trivet. 210c for 20 mins. 180c for the rest depending on size. Don't overcook.


This always produces an amazing bird :)
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Tried this a few weeks a ago. Was a fantastic roast, many thanks!
 
just ballotine it - perfect and moist every single time, and only takes 10/15 minutes to do.

I never "just roast" a chicken nowadays, when 10 minutes work gives such awesome results :)
 
uv said:
just ballotine it - perfect and moist every single time, and only takes 10/15 minutes to do.

I never "just roast" a chicken nowadays, when 10 minutes work gives such awesome results :)
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I tried this once. Whilst it looks amazing and is a doddle to serve, I found it lacked a little flavour compared to a full bird. I guess you buy cuts on the bone for a reason.

Certainly worth a try though.
 
HeadlessChicken said:
I tried this once. Whilst it looks amazing and is a doddle to serve, I found it lacked a little flavour compared to a full bird. I guess you buy cuts on the bone for a reason.

Certainly worth a try though.
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I've done this tons of times and I've never found it lacking in flavour compared to chicken cooked on the bone. The other advantage too this is that you can position the bird in such a way that the fattier thigh meat helps baste the breasts and keep them moist.
 
HeadlessChicken said:
I tried this once. Whilst it looks amazing and is a doddle to serve, I found it lacked a little flavour compared to a full bird. I guess you buy cuts on the bone for a reason.

Certainly worth a try though.
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I always "stuff" the bird - so a layer of garlic and chilli, or lemon and chilli, or mushroom and spinach, or Sainbury's chipotle paste :p

Also, salting the chicken helps crisp up the skin and adds loads of flavour.

I agree it's a different flavour to regular roast chicken - but it's just different, definitely not lacking.
 
I always get some kitchen towel and get the extra moisture off the skin. Give it a good patting down. Do this with any fowl with skin on it. You will thank me when you get nice crispy skin.

Put a lemon in the cavity along with a couple of sprigs of rosemary and thyme.

Also get a bulb of garlic (removing two cloves) and cut it in half then put that in to keep the lemon company.

Bruise the two cloves of garlic (peeled) and stuff them under the skin on the breasts along with a generous knob of butter each.

Get some seasalt and rub it into the skin along with some olive oil and put a generous amount of thyme onto the skin as well. It will go nice and golden brown and will crisp up a treat.

Whack it in the oven.

Enjoy.
 
Roast chicken. line the bottom of a baking dish with onions and some crushed garlic cloves, skin on; coat your chicken in butter, sage, thyme onion salt and a sprinkling of rosemary, stuff it with an onion and a bunch of the same fresh herbs. Put around 200-300ml of chicken stock in the baking dish, not too much as to cover the onions, put the chicken on top and in an oven preheated to 240c, turn down straight away to 190 - 200, baste every 20 minutes or so for around 2 hours. When it's ready, pull the onion out of the chicken's cavity, place it in a liquidizer with the rest of the onion and juices from the baking dish, beautiful onion gravy and a juicy perfectly cooked chicken. Never steered me wrong.
 
HeadlessChicken said:
Are you doing a full traditional roast?

If so IMO I would resist using anything too fragrant (your cumins, corianders etc).


For the perfect roast chicken I:


1) Brine the chicken overnight. Use a 5% brine. So if you puth the chicken in a large bowl and it takes 4 litres to top up with cold water, dissolve 200g salt in the water beforehand. Sit chicken in bowl in fridge overnight, or as long as you have.

This *really* makes a chicken in my experience.

2) Microwave a lemon for 30 secs. jab with fork and stuff up chickens bum.

3) Add thyme, oregano and sage (all chopped) to some unsalted butter. Be liberal, get it everywhere.

4) Roast on a veg trivet. 210c for 20 mins. 180c for the rest depending on size. Don't overcook.


This always produces an amazing bird :)
Click to expand...

I tried this yesterday and it was excellent, I used olive oil instead of butter and didn't roast it on a veg trivet but it was the nicest chicken I've cooked :D Cheers
 
If you have some time (not hands on) on your hands to experiment:

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-roast-chicken

It is pretty similar to what the Modernist Cuisine team do (not surprising as some are former members of the original team. There are also some other excellent articles/recipes on their website and forum and the videos are really well made).

My local butcher does some amazing chickens but i might have to try ordering a couple of Label Anglais ones to try this technique with:

http://www.sjfrederick.co.uk/
 
My never-fail roast chicken procedure:

Take out the wishbone first. Stuff the gap between the skin and breast/thighs with a mix of sausage meat and chopped rosemary and thyme (also bacon optional). Only a couple of springs of rosemary, don't over do it. Don't skimp on the sausage meat, you can get a whole pack in that gap :p Then pour a load of salt on the inside and chuck in a couple more whole springs of rosmary and thyme - you can be more liberal with these, they mainly just make everything smell great.

Truss the chicken (watch youtube video for how to do it), then follow cooking instructions on back of original pack. Add about 15 mins due to extra sausage meat.

Always crispy skin, juicy and tender inside. Very difficult to overcook because sausage meat protects the breast meat.
 
Moses said:
A bit of a bump (I was searching for brining :o), but just to reiterate that it's pretty easy to do and people should give it a try.

I remember the first time I tried it... I watched this video, then had it in the kitchen on a laptop for reference,

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I was the same (with the same video too:p). First time I had to keep going back to the video every 2 minutes but after having done it a few times it's now quite a simple process.
 
I like it simple, brush butter on skin, crush up a chicken stock cube and sprinkle it over the skin. Place in oven.
Or complicated, mix butter, lemon rind and a bit of thyme together, push your hand under the skin and place butter mixture, stab the Lemon a few times and stick in cavity.

Although I'm still in the opinion, herbs are massively overused in modern cooking. Not every dish needs herbs in them. Sometimes simplicitly is best, but it's all about mixing it up and not getting stuck in routine.

Edit - humph caught out by the necro bump :(
 
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PiKe said:
I have a few spices in the cupboard but wondered what I should use on tomorrows roast.

I have Cumin, Curry powder, corriander powder, garlic cloves, salt, pepper, aromat, tobasco sauce, brown sauce, chicken stock cubes, ginger, basil, oregano, paprika, soy sauce and toasted seasame oil. Any ideas?
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for me salt pepper and paprika ( not hot paprika ) - gives the chickena lovely red colour and taste great
 
Sunbed said:
My never-fail roast chicken procedure:

Take out the wishbone first. Stuff the gap between the skin and breast/thighs with a mix of sausage meat and chopped rosemary and thyme (also bacon optional). Only a couple of springs of rosemary, don't over do it. Don't skimp on the sausage meat, you can get a whole pack in that gap :p Then pour a load of salt on the inside and chuck in a couple more whole springs of rosmary and thyme - you can be more liberal with these, they mainly just make everything smell great.

Truss the chicken (watch youtube video for how to do it), then follow cooking instructions on back of original pack. Add about 15 mins due to extra sausage meat.

Always crispy skin, juicy and tender inside. Very difficult to overcook because sausage meat protects the breast meat.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, however what's the actual purpose of trussing? To me it just seems that it'll prevent direct heat getting to some of the leg meat and therefore make it less crispy in those areas.
 
I cook a lot of chicken (6 whole ones last week haha) I find it easier to break down and they have decent offers on too, so I can use them for stocks, lunches etc. as well as dinners.

Nice sage and thyme bit of dried garlic and salt/pepper mixed with butter under the skin is nice. Same with porchini or any other dried mushrooms mixed with butter and salt too.
Lemon, or a sliced in half garlic head up it's hole.

A standard go to would be the BBQ rub though, goes on anything, but agree a nice 2 second job paprika and salt is decent.

So much you can do with them though!
 
Participant said:
Sounds good, however what's the actual purpose of trussing? To me it just seems that it'll prevent direct heat getting to some of the leg meat and therefore make it less crispy in those areas.
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With stuffing it can help stop the stuffing "splooging" out but aside from that as far as I know it's just for presentation. I prefer not to truss for the reasons you've mentioned already (though ballontine is how I would always do a whole chicken anyhow).
 
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