If you have ever wanted a never fail, fall-off-the-bone, perfectly browned, buttery, moist, easy, delicious, impress-your-in-laws roast chicken recipe, you've come to the right place.
I've spent years perfecting this one and there are a few variations, from stuffings to sides, but today, I'm going to teach you how to make the main event, the real deal: the traditional roast chicken.
Like all the best home-cooked dishes, this recipe requires time, love and attention, so I recommend you start the process about 6 hours before you intend to serve. Prepping is what takes the most energy, so I try to get all my chopping done right at the beginning so I can just rotate things in the oven as and when I need to. I'm going to keep it simple with sides (although you'll see a variety here) and we'll stick to caramelized carrots and roast potatoes with gravy.
Tools:
Oven gloves
Large baking tray x 3
Sharp chopping knives
Chopping board
Vegetable peeler
Grater
Mortar and pestle for making your own flavoured salt (otherwise premixed chicken spice is acceptable)
gravy boat for serving
Ingredients:
1 whole fresh chicken: free-range with giblets
1 whole bulb of garlic (8-10 cloves)
Fresh rosemary: 4-6 large sprigs
2 x eggs
8 x large onions
1 lt of wine
flavoured salt/ chicken spice
500g butter
Carrots 1.5kgs
Potatoes 10 to 12 medium potatoes
Instant powdered chicken gravy x 2 sachets
2 slices of bread (can be the ends: I keep and freeze ends specifically for this purpose)
Flour
cinnamon
sugar
I like to get the chicken into the oven as soon as possible because it really needs as much time in there as absolutely possible. Set it to 180 degrees celsius.
Peel all of your onions in one go, but Cut six of them into rough wedges to line the bottom of your baking tray. As these roast away under your chicken, they will provide the perfect base for the best gravy. Finely dice the remaining two for your stuffing.
Now is also the time to peel and chop all your garlic and prepare the rosemary by stripping the green leaves from the twigs and chopping finely.
Remove your chicken from all its packaging and take out the giblets (they're normally packet in a neat little bag in the cavity of the chicken). Set the giblets aside and give the chicken a good rinse inside and out, allowing it to drip dry in a colander. The fun part, if you're a little squeamish like me, is finding the liver in between all the other giblets, but its texture is the giveaway. It's the squishy one and will smell exactly like chicken liver. What you do with the rest of the giblets is your own business. I usually fry them up and give them to the kitties. The liver, however, will give your stuffing magical flavour, and for those of you who aren't terribly fond of liver, it will be so overwhelmed with garlic, you'll barely even know its there.
Stuffing Ingredients:
4-6 carrots, grated (about 1 cup)
2 slices of bread, broken and crumbled finely by hand
2 onions finely chopped
2 tablespoons of chopped garlic
2 sprigs/ tablespoons of rosemary
1 tablespoon of flavoured salt/ chicken spice
2 eggs
chopped chicken liver
Making the stuffing is messy and fun. Throw everything into one bowl and crack in the eggs. As long as little hands are clean, this is a fun activity for the kids to help with. Otherwise use your own hands to make sure everything is mixed well and combined. I mean, you can try to use a spoon, but the best textured and well combined stuffing is mixed by using your hands. Have a sink of clean water ready to rinse your hands because you won't be able to turn the taps with stuffing stuck to your fingers.
To prepare your chicken, place it on top of the onion wedges, opening side facing you and begin stuffing the chicken. Remember that you should always roast your chicken breast side down to avoid all that chicken meat from drying out. As you add handfuls of stuffing, push the stuffing in using a fist shape or your fingers and thumbs (don't make it weird guys) but the chicken always has more space for stuffing than you think.
Now rest the chicken breast side down on the onions. Season the top and sides of the chicken with all the remaining rosemary, garlic and flavoured salt/ chicken spice. Pour in all the wine, yes, the whole lot, and cover the chicken in strategically placed blobs of butter to ensure no nook or cranny is left to dry out.
Cover your chicken with tin foil, being careful not to let the foil make contact with the chicken to prevent it from sticking and ruining your chicken's potential for flawless golden brown skin.
Place in the centre of the oven and leave it alone in there for at least two full hours, 3 if you can manage it.
In the meanwhile, you can prep your carrots and roast potatoes.
Dice the carrots (you can use butternut or pumpkin too), place them in their own baking tray and coat with cinnamon sugar and butter. Don't be shy with the cinnamon. This sweet and spicy side complements the glorious salty roast so beautifully. It really is one I'll do regardless of what other veggies I decide to prep.
For the potatoes, I recommend you cut them into 8ths and preboil them till they're just less than halfway cooked. Drain and set aside. Mix together two cups of flower and four tablespoons of chicken spice / flavoured salt. Coat the base of your last baking tray with a few globs of olive oil and ensure the whole base is evenly coated. Roll your potato wedges in the spiced flour and place evenly on the baking tray. Try to not overcrowd the pan or they will not brown properly and will stick together. Drizzle the tops with olive oil.
After three hours, carefully remove the roast chicken from the oven and pour off the gorgeous juices and whole onion pieces into a saucepan, leaving about 1/4 of the liquid in the tray with the chicken for the remainder of the cooking time. Set aside. place your carrots and potatoes in the oven for an hour, switching them around halfway and rotating them to ensure everything gets browned and cooked evenly.
It's a bit tricky juggling three baking trays at this point, but at least once everything is almost cooked, you can juggle to keep everything warm and cooking at the right speeds, while achieving a golden brown roasted texture for all three items: the chicken, the carrots and the potatoes.
Once your carrots and potatoes are almost done, coat the chicken with more butter (yes, you heard me) and place it back in the oven to brown. You can try to flip the chicken over, but at this point, it will most likely just fall apart.
Prepare your gravy by boiling on high, your gorgeous onions and chicken juices that you poured off your roast. At this point, you can shoot me for cheating, but I add in instant chicken gravy mixed with half a cup of water to thicken. If you have a stick blender, now is a great time to use it, otherwise, I really don't mind the onion chunks in my gravy at all. If you don't want to use instant chicken gravy, you can use flour, mixed with half a cup of water. Lumpy gravy is not great though, so be consistent while stirring. Bring the temp down to a gentle simmer while you finish off the veggies and the chicken. Don't, for heaven's sake, let your chicken dry out now. So put down your wine, get the kids to set the table and devour this absolutely mouthwatering buttery masterpiece you have created.
***BornUpATree! ***
