Roast Chicken

Being able to cook a nice roast chicken will win you friends.

Ingredients

  • One whole chicken, about 1.8 kilograpms (KG) or above
  • Maris Piper potatoes
  • An onion
  • Two carrots
  • Vegetables
  • Spices to make an oiled rub for the skin of the chiken

Method

Calculating the cooking time

  1. Turn the oven on to 190 degrees centigrade
  2. Work out how long to cook your chicken using this method:

Getting this calculation right is important.

Take the weight in kilos and multiple it by 45. To this number, add 20.

Examples

If the weight of your chicken is 2.0 kg, the cooking time in minutes is 2.0 * 45 = 90, plus 20 which is 110. Therefore, you must cook the chicken for 110 minutes or 1 hour and 50 minutes on 190 degrees centigrade.

If the weight of your chicken is 1.5 kg, the cooking time in minutes is 1.5 * 45 = 67, plus 20 which is 87 minutes. You need to cook this chicken for 1 hour, 27 minutes at 190 degrees centigrade.

Getting this calculation right is important. Eating undercooked chicken is dangerous.

Getting the chicken ready for the oven

  1. Peel a single onion
  2. Cut ends off
  3. Cut into four thick slices
  4. Cut two carrots in half
  5. Put the onion and carrots into an oven proof roasting dish
  6. Put the raw whole chicken on top of the onions and carrot
  7. Wash your hands, you have just been touching raw chicken

Flavour bomb for the roast chicken skin

  1. Put your chosen spices into a small bowl
  2. Add salt and pepper to the spices

  3. Add oil to the small bowl and mix up so spices are thoroughly coated

  4. Pour the spice and oil mix over the raw chciken

  5. Rub the spice and oil mix into the legs, wings and both chicken breasts
  6. Wash your hands

Add liquid to the ovenproof dish

  1. Add to the oven proof dish 1 litre of liquid

This can be 50:50 beer and water, 50:50 wine and water, or 50:50 perry and water. Any beer is fine. Steer clear of Guinness or other stouts as they become too bitter after cooking.

Some of the spice and oil mixture will be in the liquid. That is fine, it's all good flavour.

This liquid will help keep the chicken moist during cooking and it will form the gravy at the end.

  1. Put the chicken into the heated oven
  2. Start a timer to remind you when to take the chicken out of the oven

Starting the roast potatoes

  1. Boil 1.5 litres of water
  2. Cut potatoes into even sized chunks
  3. Add boiling water to a parge saucepan
  4. Add salt to the boiling water
  5. Put the potatoes carefully into the boiling water. You may splash it
  6. Put the lid on your potato saucepan
  7. Part-cook for ten minutes. Do not cook longer or you will end up with mushy potatoes

After ten minutes, the potatoes will not be fully cooked. That is what we want.

  1. Drain the potatoes
  2. Put the potatoes into a dry saucepan
  3. Put on a lid
  4. Shake the potatoes around in the dry pan with the lid on
  5. Take the lid off
  6. Leave the potatoes to steam on the stove top

Shaking the potatoes will create extra texture that will crunch up when cooked.

Flavour bomb for the roast potatoes

  1. Get a small bowl
  2. Add garlic granules to the bowl. Note, this is not garlic salt, that will be too salty
  3. Add rosemary to the bowl, lots
  4. Add some salt and pepper
  5. Add oil until the granules, rosemary, salt and pepper are fully coated
  6. Set this aside

Note, do not coat the potatoes with this mix in advance. If you do, the potatoes will absorb the oil and your potatoes will not be crunchy, but mushy.

When your timer goes off

  1. Pierce a chicken breast with a sharp pointed knife
  2. Do the juices run clear?
  3. You may need to push down on the chicken with the side of the knife or repeat in multiple places
  4. If the juices have even the faintet traceof red, put the chicken back in the oven for five minutes
  5. Recheck the chicken after five minues, as above. Never assume. Always check.

When your chicken is cooked

  1. Take your cooked chicken out of the ovenproof dish and put it on some silver foil
  2. Wrap the chicken up in foil

This will help it keep warm while you do the rest of the meal. It also means the chicken meat will be moist when you eat it.

Put the potatoes in to roast

  1. Add the potatotes to an ovenproof dish
  2. Pour the rosemary, garlic granule, salt and pepper oil mixture over the potatoes
  3. Thoroughly coat the potatoes in the mix
  4. Add the potatoes to the oven
  5. Turn the oven up to 230 degrees centigrade
  6. This requires you to move the lefthand knob to the right by one click, and then turn the heat up

At 230 degrees centigrade, the potatoes will take abou 20 minutes.

The veg

  1. Cook your chosen vegetables in the steamer
  2. Keep an eye on this, steam is hot and the veg will cook quickly

Making the gravy

  1. From the ovenproof dish that had the chicken in it, pour the liquid into a Pyrex jug
  2. Give it two minutes to let the liquid settle

The liquid will separate into two layers. The top layer is chicken fat. The bottom layer is the beer and water with chicken juices in it. This will make a tasty gravy.

We want to get rid of the top layer. If this fat ends up in the gravy, the result will be too oily and will be unpleasant to eat.

With a spoon or turkey baster, put the top layer of chicken fat into a glass. Put this fat into yourfood waste bin. Do not pour this down the sink as it will clog up the drains.

One you have done this, there will be a small layer of fat at the top. It is really difficult to get rid of it all so do not try. Some fat in the gravy helps the flavour, just not too much.

  1. With a stck blender, blend up the liquid in the Pyrex jug
  2. Sieve this blended liquid into a saucepan so there are no solids in the pan
  3. Pour a small amount of this liquid into a fresh glass
  4. Add two bay leaves to the saucepan
  5. Put the heat on to medium-high

This will boil the liquid. We are going to reduce it slightly to improve the flavour.

  1. In the fresh glass that contains a bit of gravy, add a tablespoon of regular, non-rising, flour
  2. Mix this thoroughly to get rid of lumps
  3. Add a small amount of this mix to the saucepan
  4. Using a whisk, make sure the gravy and mix are thourghly stired
  5. As you are adding flour to a liquid, the gravy should start to thicken
  6. If after two minutes, the gravy does not start to thicken, add a little bit more from the glass
  7. Always add less not more. You cannot rush this bit.
  8. You only want it thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. No thicker. It's not custard.

SitRep

By now, the chicken is cooked and is resting. Your gravy is made. Your veg in the steamer is about done. And the roast potatoes should be nicely brown, crunchy and fully cooked.

  1. Check potatoes
  2. If nicely brown, take the potatoes out of the oven and turn the oven off
  3. If they need more time, put back in oven for two minutes and re-check
  4. Once done, take potatoes out of oven and switch off oven

Plating up

  1. Warm some plates
  2. Unwrap the chicken from the foil
  3. Prepare the plates
  4. Carve chicken and put on plates
  5. Add chicken skin to the plates
  6. Add potatoes to plates
  7. Add veg to plates
  8. Pour gravy into a warmed gravy boat
  9. Take plates and gravy to table
  10. Enjoy