Roast Chicken

The traditional Sunday roast in my family isn't a joint, it's a chicken.  As much as I love roasting pork or lamb or beef on a quiet Sunday afternoon, they're simply not quite as meaningful for me as a good roast chicken.  So nothing could have delighted Jared and me more than to get a gorgeous free-range chicken (with giblets!) delivered from Abel & Cole.  (We previously met Abel & Cole while using their delicious vegetables for our Christmas dinner.)

I have to admit, I was leery at first.  I've roasted free-range chickens before and found them relatively lean and tasteless.  This chicken, however, must have led a very happy and tranquil life; it was one of the fattest, juiciest chickens I've ever had the pleasure of cooking. 

The finished product, with a side of roast potatoes.

Here's what we did:  (This is a modified Weight Watchers recipe; if you discard the skin before eating, this makes a pretty healthy chicken dinner!)

Preheat the oven to 190 C. You can cook the chicken slightly longer at a slightly lower temperature for a truly spectacular roast; I usually do this.  The meat just falls off the bones when a chicken is perfectly roasted.

Combine 2 to 4 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil, a little fresh or dried parsley, oregano, and rosemary in a bowl with two teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.  Add a little salt, pepper, and some crushed garlic to this mix.

Carefully poke a small hole through the skin of the chicken's thighs and breast.  Using your index finger, separate the skin from the meat, creating deep pockets.  Rub the herb mixture into the meat in these pockets. 

Fill the chicken cavity with onion quarters, garlic, root vegetables, or even lemon halves.

My mom likes to sprinkle a little paprika on top of her chickens, to give them a nice dash of color.  Although I neglected to do so here, I usually follow suit.

Roast the chicken, taking care to bast every 20 minutes or so.  It may take 75 minutes to two hours, depending on how large your chicken is an how slowly you're roasting it.  Definitely make sure the chicken is finished cooking!  Either use a meat thermometer or make an incision on the chicken's thigh to check.  When the juices run clear from the cut, the chicken is finished.

Let stand for ten minutes before carving.

We paired our roast chicken with roast potatoes, a loaf of six-day sourdough bread from De Gustibus, and a Chateauneuf du Pape.

 

Our raw chicken, giblets, stuffing and rub, only slightly out of focus. (I was probably woozy from hunger.)

Jared and I share an affection for giblets, and we didn't want to make gravy with these.  So we modified a St. John recipe (quoted below) for duck's hearts on toast and ate them as appetizers.

Get a frying pan very hot, pop in a knob of butter, followed by the hearts [or in this case, all the giblets], and fry for four minutes, rolling them around occasionally.  Apply a splash of balsamic vinegar and chicken stock, season [with sea salt and pepper], and let the hearts get to know the liquor for a couple of minutes.  Place the hearts on toast, leave the sauce on the heat to reduce for a moment, and pour over the toast and duck hearts.

It's hard to believe, but these may have been even better than the chicken itself, which was amazing.

 

I find that, once again, I cannot recommend Abel & Cole's products highly enough.  And this was the first time we've ever made something from Fergus Henderson's book, which was also a spectacular success.  Everyone wins!