Another embarrassingly dumb question (roasting a whole chicken)

DdraigGoch

Easiest way to do a chicken:

Put oven on to 200'
Get roasting tin/Pyrex out
Unwrap chicken
Check instructions on back of label
Ensure that chicken - now unwrapped and with HALF a lemon shoved inside it - stays in middle of oven BREAST SIDE DOWN for at least 20 minutes longer than they tell you to!
Poke fattest bit of thigh, if it looks like water coming out, it's done. If it's pink - bung it back in for another 20 minutes and test again.

EASY TEST TO SEE IF IT'S DONE
Take hold of the leg bone [the one with a knuckle showing] whilst wearing a heat proof oven glove/thick tea towel - it's HOT! - and twist it. If the bone comes out of the socket, it's done.
If it's done, turn the oven up as high as it will go.
Turn chicken "right" way up, bung it back into the oven for 10 minutes. See if it's browned up, if not, keep watching every 5 minutes [it catches quickly at this stage]
Take out of oven - do NOT carve immediately!

put on plate and cover with foil [like a tent, if poss] or another roasting dish etc to keep warmth in. Leave for at least 5 minutes, it makes it very tender.

Make gravy with whatever's in the roasting tin - if you can, pour off as much fat as possible first.

Enjoy with roasted potatoes, roasted parsnip, vichy carrots, steamed cabbage ..... oooh, now I'm drooling...



Really, it will be fine.

all the best
DG

competitionscafe

There is a good step-by-step guide here with pictures (select the roast chicken menu and just ignore the bit about spinach and fruit crumble unless you want to make those as well)
http://www.jamiesdinners.com/unleash/menus/

The hot lemon inside the chicken idea works really well.

brooksie77

First get rid of the string, if there is any. Put a generous amount of butter into the cavity with a few sprigs of thyme, a few smashed garlic cloves, and half a lemon. Season the whole surface, preferably with sea salt and freshly milled black pepper. Put into a high oven (it's important that it was given enough time to fully pre-heat), and as soon as it's in (or after 5-10 mins) turn the oven down to medium low. After 2 hours or so you'll have a bird with a crispy skin that's dropping off the bones. Beautiful. Save all the juices in the pan, including those inside the cavity, to use as gravy (you can cook it for a while with flour to thicken it if you prefer thick gravy).

Any leftover chicken can be picked off the bones and eaten with plenty of salt later on, or put into a sandwich (if you have any gravy left you can use this in the sarnie too to make it moist).

Keep the carcass and bring to the boil very gently with carrots and celery, and simmer for 2 hours, then strain. Voila, a lovely stock! You can freeze this and it lasts ages.

Olliebeak

Congratulations to those who have ventured into roasting chicken for the first time ever :T . You do know what this means now, don't you! By next Christmas - you'll be ready for your first ever Christmas Turkey, woohoo :j.

I quaked in my shoes doing my first christmas lunch - till I realised (later that evening) that it's nothing more than a glorified sunday lunch. As long as you keep calm, make sure you're organised and that everybody keeps out of your way - only doing what they're asked to do - then it's easy peasy.

jomknight

Put the chicken upside down i.e. laying on its breast in a roasting dish on a grid the middle of a HOT oven. Pour over a cup of boiling water. This way up produces a juicier breast.I give the first 20 minutes higher e.g. Reg 7 than the basic time to kick start and kill off germs. Reduce oven to Reg 5 after the 20 minutes . The total time is 20 min per lb or 500g and 20 min extra. Half way through the total time turn the bird over so the breast gets brown. Check juices run clear especially between leg and body. Remove bird from oven and strain the fat off the juice which will have collected in the pan and use as a base for gravy with stock from pre boiled giblets (if lucky enough to have them ).
This is a very low fat way, I add no fat and the better the quality of the bird the less fat that will come off. I don't like added flavours but that is up to you .

moanymoany

I absolutely agree with frugal and nell - the chicken doesn't need to be washed as the heat will kill any bacteria. Squeeze lemon juice over it and put the squeezed bits in the cavity. I also put rosemary sprigs, bay leaves and the ends of celery (if I have it) in the cavity. I sprinkle chopped bacon bits on the top. Leftover or very cheap red wine in the tin.

If I have none of these exotic add ons I sprinkle the chicken with salt and cook it!

I cook them in a covered roasting tin. I make sure the liquid doesn't evaporate and add water if necessary as the sticky juices make fab gravy.

I do worry about spreading bacteria. I also think flavour gets washed out of meat. However, lots of people do it. My mil who was the best 'plain' cook for roasts ever, never washed meat.

sparklewing

Well today is the day.

Didn't sleep at all last night(not due to chicken roasting stress ), so I'm in a right grump today, which means if Percy doesn't do what is expected off him he may get launched out a window.

Also means I can't be bothered going out to the shop so any fancy roasting involving lemons or herbs will have to wait until roasting chicken number 2.

Today Percy will be given a buttery massage before being whacked in the oven.

Will be starting about half 3ish with an aim of serving around 6-6.30pm. Will update once he is done(unless I kill us with food poisoning ), I'll try to update during too but my internet is being pants today and with the lack of sleep and all I'm already close to smashing up the computer in frustration.

Thank you very much for all the help and suggestions have printed them out for future use.

theamazinggem

Ceamonster wrote: »

Yes, riiiigh. That's exactly what I meant.

I don't agree with eating misery chicken, that's all. Others can make up their own minds.

then let them.


and all the very best of luck to you sparklewing tho i'm sure it's going to be grand.

SwanSue

Just to add my bit to this discussion, having roasted a number of birds in my time with varying success (which has meant essentially that the bird was throughly cooked through).

Recently my sister told me about this book: 150 Things to Make with Roast Chicken and 50 Ways to Roast It by Tony Rosenfeld. Not complicated really, has simple, good instructions. I tired the brine method he described and made the BEST roast chicken ever. Lots of good recipes to make maximum use of one bird and so I can afford to buy the free range type recommended by Jamie and Hugh.

Hope others will find this helpful and good use of time and money toward moneysaving goals.

Bryony48

It's a bit late for tonight's chicken roasting but this tip might help someone else. Get a chicken brick - this is a clay pot/oven which was quite popular in the 70s although Habitat still sell them. I got mine from Freecycle recently and would not cook a chicken any other way now. Google Chicken Brick and Freecycle for a useful recipe on someone's blog.

Method: immerse the chicken brick in water for about half an hour before use to stop it drying out and cracking. Slice an onion and scatter in the bottom of the dish. Add other veg and seasoning eg garlic, fresh herbs if you like. The smaller any veg is cut, the better it will cook. Snip the string off the chicken and pop it on top of the veg. Pour over a glass of white wine and/or stock. Put it in a cold oven then switch on to gas mark 5/190 degrees and leave for 2.5 hours (while you go to the pub, do the garden, cook whatever other veg you're going to eat with the chicken etc!) It's that easy!

The chicken roasts and steams at the same time meaning it is wonderfully tender and falls off the bone, plus you have lots of lovely oniony juices in the bottom of the dish. Drain these off into a pan and bring to the boil to make gravy - use whatever method you like but I usually cheat and add thickening granules! Leave the chicken in the brick to sit for 10 mins before serving while you make the gravy.

Happy roasting!