How To Roast A Chicken

How to Roast a Chicken

I realised recently somewhat of a hole in our school system… we don’t get taught the simple things anymore! Hands up who had cooking lessons in school and learnt how to make scones, shortbread and some sort of horrendous pasta bake!? Yep… thought so! So I thought I’d lend a hand and fill in some gaps where the schools seem to have failed. Over the next few months I’m going to be doing some different posts – a crash course in cooking. Everything from how to boil or poach an egg, to how to roast a chicken (today’s lesson) to making your own pasta, and so on. So, bare with me, today we tackle… how to roast a chicken! I hope you’ll find it useful as well as a healthy additional to your repertoire!

So… how do you get to this final version of a roast chicken? Let’s run through the steps… it’s WAY easier than you’ll think!

Right, first thing’s first… you need a bird! I opted for a corn-fed, free range chicken but ideally, you’d want an organic chicken for the most nutrients.

This one was a 1.3kg bird, ideal for 2-4 people.

Once you’ve picked your bird, make sure it is FULLY defrosted. Once it’s defrosted, it’s ready to cook. Take out your roasting tray, or a baking tray if you don’t have one. Place the bird in the centre, leaving the elastic/string on, and drizzle in olive oil. Cover the chickens skin in olive oil, black pepper and salt and rub it all in generously.

Once you’ve prepped the skin, it’s time for the flavours inside. Now, there is up to you. Personally I’d stuff with one citrus fruit and one herb. So you’ve got the choice of stuffing with an orange, a lemon or a lime, and either thyme, rosemary, corriander or mint. Personally, I went with my favourite combination which is lemon and rosemary. Make sure the herbs are fresh and not dried for the best results.

Before you place the fruit inside, prick the skin of said fruit with a knife. This prevents the fruit exploding!

Once your chicken is ready for the oven, it should look a little but like this…

Preheat your oven to 240 degrees (gas mark 9). Once your oven is up to temperature, place in the chicken and TURN DOWN YOUR OVEN TO 200 degrees or gas mark 6. Roast your 1.3kg chicken for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, take your chicken out of the oven, collect the juices that have come out of it, and pour them back over the chicken. This is called basting. If there isn’t enough juice add a tiny bit more olive oil to the skin. Put the chicken back in the oven for a further 30 minutes. If you have a larger bird, keep in the oven for a little longer than this. For example, a 1.6kg bird would need a further 45 minutes, a 1.9kg chicken would need a further 1 hour.

After your bird has finished its roasting time, take it out the oven and leave it to rest for 20 minutes or so. A little like you rest beef and other meats, chicken is no different. By leaving it to rest, you let the juices and flavours settle before you re-release them when you carve it up!

And it’s as simple as that…

If you’ve cooked along with this blog or taken some tips on cooking your first roast, make sure you leave a picture or tweet it to @becky_zsd because I’d love to see how it went!

Fellow bloggers, you can find me on bloglovin’ here! I’m new so be kind…

Want some more chicken recipes or further tips? Have a browse through the rest of the blog and enjoy!