Another embarrassingly dumb question (roasting a whole chicken)

paddy's_mum

Leaving a chicken in the fridge until cooking it on Friday is a bit too long, in my opinion. Do you have a freezer? If so, I'd bung it in there and get it out again on Thursday evening, if the meal is for Friday night's dinner.

Roasting a chicken is easypeasy (when you've done it a time or two!) Have you a friend or relative nearby who would actually prepare and cook one in front of you so that you get the opportunity of seeing first hand how it's done. Sometimes being shown is much easier than trying to follow written instructions but worrying about it! Good luck and I'm sure it will be fine.

Fruball

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.

All I do with mine is take it from its packaging, sling it in a roasting dish, rub butter on the skin and a sprinkle of salt (or a chicken oxo cube is scrummy), shove 2 bay leaves and sometimes an onion up its bum and in the oven it goes. I rarely use foil.

I put it on 200c for 20 mins per 500g plus 20 mins.

Yours should take just under 2 hours but check it by piercing the thick bit of the leg and the breast - squeeze the incision and if any pink liquid comes out then pop it back in for another 20 mins and check again - if the liquid is clear then its fine

Don't be scared of cooking a roast chicken - once you are used to it you can eat rubber chicken for a week !!!!!!!!!

(btw, there shouldn't be a bag of nasties inside as they don't really do that anymore )

Other flavours I like are a few garlic cloves and a lemon split in half popped inside before roasting.

sparklewing

Ceamonster wrote: »

First, make sure it's a free range chicken

Rinse inside and out (be careful to wipe up any splashes near the sink with hot, soapy water).

Most chickens nowadays are sold gutted so there should be an empty cavity inside it. Cut a lemon in half and stick it up its bum. Peel a few cloves of garlic and shove those up there too.

Slice some thin slivers of garlic. Make tiny slits in the chicken skin all over with a sharp knife and push in the slivers of garlic. Rub all over with olive oil and sprinkle over a thick layer of mixed herbs. Cover loosely with silver foil and put in a pre-heated oven. Cooking time depends on the weight obviously, but the label should give you some idea. A chicken for two people normally takes at least an hour and a half, plus 20 minutes standing time (take out of oven and leave covered to allow the juices to settle in the meat). Make sure the juices run clear before you serve it (also, you can stick a knife in between the leg and side to check if the meat is cooked). During the cooking time, make sure you baste a couple of times(ie, drizzle the juices and oil that have collected in the roasting tin over the chicken).

Really, it's easy. Once you've done it once or twice, you'll realise a roast is really a very easy meal. Once you've prepped, made sure the chicken and roast potatoes are in the oven and the veg is ready to go, you can b*gger off down the pub for a couple of hours and come back to a lovely meal!

Thank you, so shove stuff up its bum and under its skin and it's good to go :rotfl:
How can you tell when the juices run clear as stupid as it sounds I can't really tell the difference? It always looks pinky brown to me even when it's definately cooked.

tanith

sparklewing nowadays they usually remove everything from inside... just take a look into the cavity and if there is a bag with some unspeakable bits inside just discard it.. but if it looks clean and 'empty' inside then you are good to go... they don't recommend 'rinsing/washing out a chicken nowadays as it just spreads bacteria all around your kitchen sink... just put in the oven as is brush with oil and cook as per instructions on the wrapping.. as the others say just check the juice is clear and not bloody and leave it to stand for a few mins before carving...

sparklewing

paddy's_mum wrote: »

Leaving a chicken in the fridge until cooking it on Friday is a bit too long, in my opinion. Do you have a freezer? If so, I'd bung it in there and get it out again on Thursday evening, if the meal is for Friday night's dinner.

Roasting a chicken is easypeasy (when you've done it a time or two!) Have you a friend or relative nearby who would actually prepare and cook one in front of you so that you get the opportunity of seeing first hand how it's done. Sometimes being shown is much easier than trying to follow written instructions but worrying about it! Good luck and I'm sure it will be fine.

No-one I can watch unfortunately.

Chicken is use by friday, I could make it on Wednesday instead though, no room left in the freezer for poor percy chicken :rotfl:

nell2

I thought you weren't supposed to wash poultry. Someone (was it Anthea or someone else?) said that this spread germs around the kitchen and cooking would kill any germs on the bird in any case.
I like to stick a lemon in the cavity, or you can stick a peeled onion in if that's what you've got.
I used to be terrified of cooking chicken thinking there must be something terrible difficult about it, but you basically remove all the packaging, read the label, stick it in the oven (with as much or as little faffing about as you want), cook for the allotted time, check the juices are clear, leave to rest for 10-15 minutes, carve, and eat.
It's nearly as easy to roast a chicken as to stick a ready meal in the oven!

kittyscarlett

As long as you keep both raw and cooked chicken at a safe temperature, wrap them securely, NEVER store them next to each other and wash yourself and utensils thoroughly after use, you really are not in much danger of killing yourself or anyone else by cooking chicken I never ever bother with all that rinsing the carcase out malarkey. Actually its a damn shame that most fresh birds now come without the " unspeakable bits " - they are the giblets and they can be simmered to make stock for the basis of a lovely gravy !!

Also, one thing not to panic over which some people do when learning to cook a chicken - the leg and thigh meat is quite dark and some folks get a bit worried at the pinkish appearance of it and think it isn't cooked - not so - as long as you push a knife or skewer into the thigh and the juices run clear, you're fine

Good luck with it ! hope you will make stock/soup with the carcase - pick as many scraps as you can off it first to go in the soup later, and don't forget to pick meat off the back - people often don't bother but there are lots of tasty little scraps to be had there !

sparklewing

Wednesdays dinner will be fantastical thank you very much. :beer:

Plan is to have roast Wednesday, Fahjitas Thurs, curry Friday and possibly a pie if I can eke it out enough.

How long can I keep the leftovers in the fridge? Should I freeze the chicken for the curry and pie and take them out to defrost the night before I plan to cook them? and is it a case of throwing the thawed cooked chicken into whatever I'm cooking and making sure it's toasty hot before eating or would I be better blasting the defrosted chicken in the microwave until burny hot and then adding to whatever I'm cooking?

SPANIEL36

sparklewing wrote: »

Hands up I admit it, I'm 26 and I've never roasted a chicken in my life.

i'm nearly 20-10 and i've never roasted a joint either!!! i always buy ready cooked or them joint pieces that you just shove in the oven in the tin foil!!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

sparklewing

kittyscarlett wrote: »

Also, one thing not to panic over which some people do when learning to cook a chicken - the leg and thigh meat is quite dark and some folks get a bit worried at the pinkish appearance of it and think it isn't cooked - not so - as long as you push a knife or skewer into the thigh and the juices run clear, you're fine
!

This is what worries me the most, I've never had any chicken meat other than breast because the pinkness scares me. I'm such a chicken wimp.

I should probably point out here that I have OCD and in particular a real fear of food poisoning hence my weird chicken cooking fear