Roast chicken
Having just fed four people, I thought I'd share my thoughts on roast chicken. No doubt everyone has their own way of roasting chicken, so here's mine. The worst thing about a roast chicken is dry, bland breast meat (although I don't usually eat chicken breast anyway), so you have to stuff the thing with something to prevent it from drying. Get your preferred choice of chicken (free-range, corn-fed, or whatever works for you). Wash and pat dry. Stuff with: wedges of lemon, small onion, crushed garlic cloves, your choice of herb (mint or thyme work well), butter. Rub olive oil and salt all over skin.
I served roast potatoes with the chicken. Wash and peel the potatoes, and cut into bite-size chunks. Parboil for 5 minutes, drain and shake in the pan to fluff them up. Spread over the bottom of a deep roasting tin lined with aluminium foil. Halve two small onions, and cut each half into quarters. Crush some garlic cloves. Spread evenly among the potato chunks. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and cumin seeds. Place the rack on the roasting tin and set the chicken on top, breast side up. Cook in a pre-heated at 190C (about 75 mins. for a medium-sized chicken). You shouldn't need to baste it, and the fat and juices will be soaked up by the potatoes, giving them extra flavour.
Et voilà:
I served roast potatoes with the chicken. Wash and peel the potatoes, and cut into bite-size chunks. Parboil for 5 minutes, drain and shake in the pan to fluff them up. Spread over the bottom of a deep roasting tin lined with aluminium foil. Halve two small onions, and cut each half into quarters. Crush some garlic cloves. Spread evenly among the potato chunks. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and cumin seeds. Place the rack on the roasting tin and set the chicken on top, breast side up. Cook in a pre-heated at 190C (about 75 mins. for a medium-sized chicken). You shouldn't need to baste it, and the fat and juices will be soaked up by the potatoes, giving them extra flavour.
Et voilà:
posted by CCT at 7:15 pm
2 Comments:
Have you tried roasting your chicken breast-side down to keep the white meat as moist as possible? All the juices and fat drip into the white meat...or that's the theory. It's been done with success using a 20-lb turkey. The only thing with the turkey is that you have to flip it about 30 minutes before it's done. Ever try flipping a 20-lb turkey when it's been in the oven for 3 hours?
See, but I kinda like the skin crispy, and if I roast it breast-side down, I think it'll go all soggy. My mom used to do that and then turn it over. But I'm too lazy to turn things over in the oven, and I figure they make fan ovens so you don't have to. Unless, clearly, it's a 20lb turkey. I'm not sure I could fit a 20lb turkey in my oven. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can't feed enough people in my house to need to roast a 20lb turkey!
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