Recipe: Beautiful Roast Chicken (including trussing your bird), with jus
There really are few greater things that a well roasted chicken. On a recent episode of the Kitchen Cabinet, a member of the audience timidly asked what she, not being a very good cook by her own admission, should make for her partner, who was an accomplished cook. The panel umm-ed and ahh-ed before the suggestion was offered that even the greatest chefs are continually impressed by a well-roasted chicken.
It’s tempting when presented with a really good thing, like a whole chicken, to start thinking big and complex; to plan elaborate concoctions like ballottines and galantines, and rolls and stuffings, and all the rest of it. But in the words of Wolfgang Puck, much of cooking is simply about starting with really good products and not ‘f*cking it up’.
Buying a really good quality chicken may seem expensive when it is sat next to a miserable £2.50 factory produced bird all wrapped up in plastic and ready to pop in the oven, but most people are happy to buy other really good quality meat products when it comes to beef and pork, so why not chicken? The flavour really is incomparable between the two and that’s really why matters at the end of the day.
Whilst a really well cooked chicken, with golden crispy skin and moist meat, might be dreamy, the reality is that often roast chicken is dry and stringy (we’ve all had nightmares with dry its cousin, the turkey, at Christmas time), the answer I have found is to cook the bird slowly and to take your time. In order to get the perfect crispy skin whilst cooking at low temperatures, we’re going to blanch the bird in boiling water first and start it off high and turn the oven temperature down. This is essentially how the Chinese achieve wonderfully crispy skins on duck.
As always when cooking with chicken, food safety is important. If you can get your hands on a thermometer that can be inserted into the bird then so much the better. The temperature should reach 68 degrees in the thigh to be safe.
The Recipe:
Ingredients:
One really good, free range, well fed chicken. 125g butter (1/2 pack), at room temperature Herbs of your choosing (I shall use thyme and sage) 1 carrot 1 onion 1 celery branch 1 small glass light red wine Salt and pepper
Method:
1. Prep your bird: give the bird a once-over to check that no feathers are still clinging on. 2. Blanching: Boil a pan of water that is large enough for the whole bird to be submerged. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Dunk the bird into the boiling water for no more than 30 seconds, then plunge it into the ice water. Drain the bird of any excess water, pat dry with a clean tea towel or non-fibrous kitchen towel and then leave uncovered on the countertop for an hour before roasting or covered with a tea towel, overnight in the fridge.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
4. Seasoning: season the bird well with salt and pepper inside and out. At this stage you can also put your choice of herbs inside the cavity which will help flavour the meat as it cooks. Another popular move to make is to rub herb butter over the breasts underneath the skin.
5. Trussing: The traditional way to truss a chicken pulls the legs in against the carcass, this means that the legs take longer to cook and you don’t get even skin colouration all over the legs. The method that I am going to describe is used by a number of top chefs and ensures a more even cooking and an attractive appearance.
Place the chicken breast side up with the breasts towards you and the legs away from you. Using a long piece of butchers string, place the middle of the string under the middle of the back of the chicken. Then pull the two end of the string forwards over the wings and cross the ends in front of the breasts were you find the wish bone. Now pass the ends of the string app along the bottom of each breast and cross the ends again just after the breast bone finishes. When you pull on the ends of the string now the breasts should be pushed up and out.
6. Working now with the string pulled nice and tight, pass the ends of the string under their respective drumsticks and then around the joint to meet back at the end of the breastbone where we made the last cross. When you pull on the string now the legs should be pinned in an almost upright position.
7. Pull the ends of the string taught and then tie a tight not under the tail of the bird where the ‘preen gland’ is.
8. The bird is almost ready to roast. Select an oven prove sautéed pan or roasting tray and place the giblets of the bird and the neck if you have it in the bottom. Add some herbs for good measure. Now spread a thick layer over butter all over the chicken and put it into the hot oven for ten minutes.
9. Baste the chicken well and then return for another 5. After a total of 15 minutes the bird should be looking golden and delicious.
10. Now turn the temperature down to 100C, leaving the door open so that the temperature drops quickly.
11. The bird will need at least 1 hour per kilo at this temperature, for a small bird one and a half to two hours should suffice. Baste every 30 mins.
12. Take it out of the oven, remove all the string and leave to rest for at least 20 mins. This will keep the flesh moist and tender and should be done for all meat after cooking.
13. Whilst the meat is resting make the jus. Put the roasting pan on the stove and heat until the juices start to bubble. Add the wine and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to dissolve all of the solid stuck to the bottom of the pan (called the ‘sucs’).
14. Now add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until everything is thoroughly cooked. Moisten the pan with a glass of water, then strain into a tall container to skim off excess fat. Reduce to the desired consistency if necessary.
Tips:
If you’re going to carve the bird at the table then place a bunch of herbs or lavender or watercress into the cavity after it has rested to make it look extra special.
Instead of using herb butter to spread over the breasts of the chicken, you can use thin slices of chorizo or even thin slices of Lardo di Colonnata (special Italian pork fat).
Another good way to keep the flesh super moist is to brine the chicken overnight before you cook it. I find that 1 part salt to 10 parts water is usually sufficiently briny.