Paper thin, delicate and crispy skin. Under that, moist, tender, well- marinated flesh. I just love Roast Chicken!
The key to roast chicken, for me, is to pay careful attention to the roasting process – its not just the temperatures and the times – its the rack and dish that you use. This, is not about a recipe. This is about technique!
Roast chicken is the first dish I ever tried to cook. That would have been over a decade ago. Somehow, roast chicken fascinated me, it was something new, challenging and exciting. My mum’s kitchen never had an oven – chicken was always bite sized and stir-fried. So this post is really going back to my roots.
Brine and marinate
You need at least to start a day before. The marinate must have time. I prefer two days.
Two days before, I brine the chicken (40 grammes of salt per litre of ice -cold water), and let the chicken sit in brine overnight.
One day before, I marinate the chicken. I will list some marinates later. I personally like garlic, rosemary and olive oil, blended together and rubbed all over. Let the chicken sit the fridge for another night. If possible, flip the chicken occasionally.
You need to plan, but there is not much work.
Prep
Preheat oven to very hot – I usually use 230 degrees Celsius, up to 250 is fine.
The roasting equipment is the key. You will need a roasting dish, and a rack that will fit inside the dish. The chicken must seat on the rack, off the base of the pan. This is totally important for crispy skin.
It really helps if you pour some hot water into the dish.
Some would say the water helps to keep the chicken moist, but this is not the main reason – you don’t want the roasting juices at the bottom of the pan to burn and dry out. You can do magic with the result, which I call my magic portion – such as Chicken Rice.
Set the chicken on the rack.
I do not truss my chickens. You can leave the wings as I have here, or tuck them like so :
Pour some oil over the chicken and rub all over.
And you are set!
Roast
I use a two stage roast. This first stage is a high temperature roast intended to crisp the skin. In the second stage, the temperature is dropped. This is intended to cook the chicken fully.
The timings and steps go like this :
- Breast side up at 230 degrees C for 20 minutes. Then, open the oven and turn the chicken.
- Roast, back side up for a future 15 minutes. Without opening the door, drop the temperature to 180 degrees C.
- Continue for a further 20 minutes. Then open the oven door and turn the chicken .
- Continue breast side up at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, or till a thermometer inserted deep into the thigh reads 70 degrees C.
Its simple!
This is how the chicken looks after the first 20 minutes at 230 degrees C.
From the top, it looks almost done. The skin should have browned, the wingtips may even burn a little.
I find the easiest way to turn the chicken to be to insert a long chopstick into the cavity.
Lift the chicken up, and rotate it about the chopstick
You will find the back side to be still rather pale.
The chicken can now go back in the oven, at 230 degrees. After about 15 minutes, drop the temperature to 180 degrees. There is no need to open the oven door.
Continue at 180 degrees for a further 20 minutes.
At this point, you need to open the oven door, to turn the chicken a second time . This is how it looks at this just before the second turn.
As you can see, the back of the chicken is totally roasted and crispy! Turn the chicken again using the chop stick technique.
Now, you can see why we used a rack, and put water in the roast pan? Lifted off the pan, and rotated, the chicken is browned all over. And do you see the beautiful golden liquid at the bottom of the pan? You can do magic with it! If you didn’t add water, the bottom will now be a burnt, sticky mess.
The chicken can now continue roasting breast side up, at 180 degrees, for a further 20 minutes, or until its cooked. Monitor the process as it cooks.
Serve!
Need I say more? (Picture is an example with the wings tucked in).
Let it rest, then boldly slash into it!
This is how I like it to look. The skin paper thin, the flesh nearest to the bone just ever so slightly pink! And juicy!
I totally want to eat that leg!
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Notes:
Brining – in the interests of food safety, make your brine ice cold. Add whatever you wish to the brine – lemon peel, etc.
Roasting pan – a pan just larger than the chicken prevents the juices drying out. As you cook, check the water level, you should have some liquid at the bottom. Top up as needed.
Magic portion – if you pour water into the pan, you will prevent the drippings from drying out, and you will collect a magic portion, with which you can do wonderful things.
