Another embarrassingly dumb question (roasting a whole chicken)

competitionscafe

Re: chicken brick - I am intrigued by this idea - never heard of them before. Any idea what they cost at habitat? Time to scour ebay I think Found this suggestion for roast pheasant as these are in season and quite cheap at the moment - but when i tried roasting one it was really dry so the chicken/pheasant brick ideas sounds ideal :
http://lukehoney.typepad.com/the_greasy_spoon/2007/11/pheasant-with-j.html
Would probably work really well with guinea fowl too (which I love) as these too tend to be to dry if roasted so I usually poach them......

madmum33

The chicken brick intrigues me too - I found one on amazon with free delivery!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ICTC-31032-Digoin-Chicken-35x23cm/dp/B00022M2WU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201768415&sr=8-1

ler01kjh

Frugal wrote: »

I never wash my chicken as you can spread any bacteria much more easily by splashing the water around/drips etc - saw it on a programme recently :eek: It was about turkey but the principle is the same.

Absolutely right.... If you do rinse the chicken, you won't necessarily see where the bacteria has spead to. And you won't necessarily kill all of the bacteria if you wipe the drips up. All of the bacteria is killed during cooking anyway, so its not worth getting Salmonella by rinsing the chicken!

theamazinggem

:T :T :Twell done. looked lovely.

Psychofly

I'm 28 and I've roasted many a chicken - so it can be done even by us below 30 Follow the instructions on the label about the timing.

My top tip though is for the first half hour turn the oven up high (about 250) leaving the chicken uncovered which crispens the skin and seals it a little keeping the juices in.

DON'T cover it in tin foil. If the skin starts to burn a bit then lay a sheet of tin foil over it but don't wrap it tight... literally lay it on top to protect the skin and uncover again for the last 20 minutes.

That's pretty much it. It's not a difficult thing to do as long as you make sure the juices run clear at the end and leave it for 5 or 10 minutes to stand before carving.

If you want to be creative you can rub some butter into the meat UNDER the skin .... simply lift the skin and slide the butter under. Feels weird but it bastes the bird as it cooks.

skintscotslass

competitionscafe wrote: »

Sorry my reply above was a bit facetious.........and therefore not very helpful.......... so:
Topside is cheaper and makes a good roasting joint, it's rolled (boneless) so easy to carve too. It needs to be cooked slowly (low heat) and I think is nicest cooked quite rare - even tastier next day served cold in thin slices. Tastiest roast of all (in my opinion) is rib of beef - this is quite expensive though. Best cooked at quite a high heat - (at least to start with) - the outside bits will be 'well done' and the middle medium rare, so something for everyone. On the bone has more flavour, but is harder to carve, you can also buy it boned and rolled. And try and avoid supermarket beef- a decent butcher should have grass fed, well hung (21 days or more) British or Irish beef. Longhorn, Dexter, South Devon, Highland (fluffy cow, like my avatar) Black Angus and Aberdeen Angus are all good breeds if the butcher specifies the breed. 'Debt Free Chick' made a brilliant post on roasting beef here, which explains it all much better than I can -->
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=6551728&postcount=6

The whole thread is useful actually: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=575060

The pictures/descriptions on this site will give you an idea of what the roasting cuts look like (uncooked) and what to ask your butcher for: http://www.edwardsofconwy.co.uk/products.php?category_id=5

competitionscafe - thats brilliant, thank you for this. The butcher's website is groovy!!

skintchick

This thread made me laugh, remembering when I used to hate touching a chicken so much I would wear rubber gloves to put it into the baking tray!!!!

My method is:

Grab chicken, leave string on and dump in baking tray on top of a little oil to stop it sticking.

Rub oil over chicken and sprinkle over salt and herbs.

Put in oven and cook.

I don;t baste or fiddle. I add veg and pots at the appropriate times.

I let it stand for 15 mins at the end, then carve it all up as it's easier to do it all when warm, and parcel up into portions for later meals.

Then I make stock for soup in my slow cooker. I now have soup going on the stove as we speak. Yum.

competitionscafe

madmum33 wrote: »

The chicken brick intrigues me too - I found one on amazon with free delivery!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ICTC-31032-Digoin-Chicken-35x23cm/dp/B00022M2WU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201768415&sr=8-1

Well, after doing a wee bit of googlin' I found the identical chick brick on sale on 2 other sites for £30 quid, so that amazon price of £16.14 with free delivery (it weighs nearly 4kg apparently!) sounds like a bargain deal.
Decided to risk it for a biscuit (Or a chicken!) and order one........will report back on the results (I love new cooking experiments!) Think this could be just the job for pheasant and guinea fowl even if it's a bit of a 70's retro Oh yes and my one concern was cleaning the thing, but apparently it's dishwasher safe...so problem solved there too (assuming it fits!). Thanks for finding this Mrs Mad Mum. :beer:
£29
http://www.kitchenaria.com/baking-and-roasting/terracota/chicken-brick/kitchenware_198.html

£30
http://www.armorica.co.uk/Tableware/Digoin_Tableware/Digoin_Chicken_Brick/254/3451

Oooh, recipe
http://101things.wordpress.com/2006/08/16/chicken-in-a-brick-with-gravy/

Reviews:
http://www.gardenlifestyles.co.uk/Garden-and-Home-Gifts/Chicken-Brick

And apparently you can use it to bake bread too? Any other uses??

madmum33

You're welcome CC! Thanks for the recipe link, that blog is full of good stuff, especially like the look of mussels in cider

I'm still thinking about this - do I really need one? And I don't have a dishwasher so how would I wash it? Apparently they only have 3 left in stock so I might not get a chance!

DdraigGoch

I just wash mine up - don't scrub it, just wash the fat and bits off and it will develop a lovely patina. I also only wipe off when hot my wok and llechfaen. They really don't like being thoroughly washed. Not everything is suitable for the dishwasher or heavy scrubbing - as I found out to my expense.