Another embarrassingly dumb question (roasting a whole chicken)

timread

Ooh and another vote for chicken pie from the leftovers! All you need is the chicken leftovers, some vegetables, stock/gravy, white wine, herbs, and a frozen pack of puff pastry, and a few staples.

Dead easy - fry off some onion or leeks, roughly chopped carrot, celery, possibly mushrooms, half a glass of white wine, and some tarragon. Add a couple of tablespoons of flour, fry for a few minutes. Add the defrosted chicken. Make up some gravy (or half a pint of stock) and add it to the mix. Reduce down until the mixture is a nice thick consistency. Make sure the chicken is piping hot throughout. Pour the lot into a pie dish.

Roll out the puff pastry for the lid - make a few leaf decorations with the offcuts. Brush the pastry lid with a beaten egg (or milk if you don't have an egg). Bake in a hot oven until the pastry is done.

sparklewing

skintscotslass wrote: »

Good luck sparklewing. I hadnt cooked a chicken until last year when I was 38! I still wasnt brave enough to tear all the chicken off once cooked. I used to give the chook to my mum. No longer!! Rubber chicken in this house. Hoping to be really brave and cook roast pork or roast beef soon.

I did roast beef the other week for the first time, it wasn't too hard although I cheated and had aunt bessie yorkshires.

creamcheese

I'd say if you're worried about undercooking Percy, then leave him in the oven a bit longer. If you come to carve and the meat's a bit dry, then put the carved meat in a bowl, cover with some stock (or some of the gravy) and either warm through in the microwave or bung in the oven for a few minutes. The moisture from the gravy/stock will soak into the meat leaving it lovely and moist.

I did this with my mum's well and truly cremated turkey at Christmas and it worked a treat!

I'd also say it's worth basting quite often and make sure you leave Percy to rest for a good 15/20 mins. I'm generally pants at factoring resting time into my roast dinner master plan, but have recently made an effort to leave it wrapped in foil for a good while and it does really help.

If all else fails have a drinkie or two while you're cooking - it always helps my creative juices flow! :beer:

mrbadexample

sparklewing wrote: »

although I cheated and had aunt bessie yorkshires.

I made my first Yorkshire puds this weekend. Look! :j

sparklewing

Percy.

You have no idea how long it took me to figure out how to do this and words may have been spoken between me and hubby in the process

sparklewing

Ok i give up how do I get my pics in the message? I read the how to thing in faqs but clearly they didn't help me. When I put the url in the image boxy thing in the reply it showed percy within the message not as a clicky :mad:

sparklewing

mrbadexample wrote: »

I made my first Yorkshire puds this weekend. Look! :j

Show off! great yorkies AND a picture in the message humph

mrbadexample

sparklewing wrote: »

Ok i give up how do I get my pics in the message? I read the how to thing in faqs but clearly they didn't help me. When I put the url in the image boxy thing in the reply it showed percy within the message not as a clicky :mad:

Nice and easy. In Photobucket, click the IMG code instead of the direct link, and paste it here for your pic.

sparklewing

sparklewing

yay thank you, although he is a bit on the large side, any tips for making him a little less..... in your face lol.