Roasting a Chicken

For tea this Monday we are having a full roast chicken with veggies for tea and a cauliflower cheese.  It has been a while since we have had chicken just simply cooked and I was craving a proper meal.  

The chicken came from Moor Farm at Newborough - the first time we had tried one of their birds.  Whilst not the biggest bird for the price, it is good solid meat that cooks beautifully and that for me makes all the difference.  The meat was "sweet", cut well and it cooked well.  I tend for the best part to cook chicken simply.  I either add a Lemon or parts thereof, depending on what flavouring I am going for or an Onion halved or a couple of large shallots to the cavity.  These days if I do a stuffing which I did not last night, I cook that in a separate tray in any event. I quite liberally coat the bird with butter and I then sprinkle with either Fines Herbes (with some Chervil in), Herbes de Provence [with Lavender in) (I love both of these herb mixes) or a general Mixed Herb Mixture. I also add a couple of Bay leaves to the cavity. I do tend to add a little more Thyme though.  Thyme adds a lot of flavour and is good for you.  I also use white pepper sprinkled on top as well.

If I am not doing "Roasties" in the pan, I add a little bit of water to the bottom of the pan to in effect start off the basis of a gravy for the chicken and all the drippings and flavourings from the bird, herbs and bay leaves.  Equally, if I am making Roasties, I par-boil the potatoes before adding into a pan with homemade melted hot dripping - usually Pork dripping to give a bit more flavour to the "Roasties". You want enough to cover the potatoes but not to drown them as otherwise they will not brown up properly.  Depending on whether I am using a Roaster pan (which I did last night one with a lid) or an open tray or indeed the Ninja:

• If time constrained I will use the Ninja I cook the bird on roasting function for about 50 minutes until cooked;
• If time is not an issue and I want a slower cooked bird - I set the temperature to Gas Mark 5 and will use either a Roasting pan with a lid and just plonk that on; if using an open roasting pan I will add foil over the pan, to ensure that the bird retains its juices and gives a nice tender meat.  If no "Roasties" I add water, or if with "Roasties" add dripping.  I take the foil or lid off half way through once the bird is tender and then just colour it up for appearances.  I personally like the bird to have a "golden" colour once cooked.  However sometimes the bird can go a little too brown on top and start to dry out even though it is not quite there with the rest of the bird.  If this happens re-cover it.  I also turn the trays around a couple of time to ensure that you get a more even cook.  Ovens are very different model to model.

I always allow the bird to stand (to ensure that the juices go back into the flesh of the bird) for about half an hour.  Yet again wrapped in the foil used previously (if used) and then with a towel over the top to retain some of the heat.  This helps with keeping the meat warm and also with getting a good slice or two from the bird.  If you over-cook the meat will crumble.  This is something I occasionally tend to do as I am often multi-tasking when cooking a meal like this with something else.

Last night, I served roast potatoes, shallots, cauliflower- cheese, petit-pois, Broccoli, carrots, Brussels with gravy made from the meat juices and the vegetable juices.  It went down an absolute treat.  Sorry no photos but it was very tasty.  In retrospect I should have done a homemade stuffing and some of my homemade bread sauce.  However no matter how tasty they are, I do try and vary things up a bit from meal to meal.

I think I am what is called an "instinctive-cook".  I was taught to cook food by watching what each individual dish did at its different stages of cooking.  Often food will give out tell-tales as to how far along it is cooked and it will tell you when it is cooked you just need to be aware of what to look for. With chicken for instance, I test with a thin knife in the thickest part of the bird and also in the joints between the legs and if the juices run clear here, the bird is cooked.  If there is blood in, it still needs further cooking. Because I am an instinctive cook - I tend to cook until I am happy with it and am not always aware of timings - when it is cooked - it is cooked!  

Normally I would do a duplicate meal again for tomorrow night, this time around though I am going to do a couple of different things which I will cover in a separate post.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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