Stephen here.
Everyone loves a good roast. There's just something about it that always brings a family together. It must be a primitive encryption within us that has something to do with sharing the meat of an entire animal.
The Roast Chicken can be cooked in an infinite number of ways and I'm sure everyone has their own method to doing so. But here is the recipe that Jasmyne and I (mostly me) have been working on for about 2 years. We do have a roast chook on a near monthly basis, it's quick, easy and cheap, but most of all tastes absolutely divine. I have recently (over the past few months) prepared this recipe for Jasmyne's family, my own (for christmas) and it was a major dish at our engagement party.
So this post is mostly to get some ideas across, rather then setting it in stone (as I'm also usually experimenting, but after 2 years of doing so this is the best I have). It's relatively simple, all you need is a whole chicken (obviously) (the size is up to you and dependant on the number of mouths you have to feed) (we are usually using a 1.2kg bird for the two of us, but the photos for this post was a size 20 bird or 2.0kg), brown onion, bulbs of garlic (the number of onions and garlic you need is dependant on the size of the bird), olive oil, freshly ground salt and black pepper and my little secret is paprika.
Choosing and Primary Preparation of the Bird
There is a significant concern when it comes to food safety when it comes to handling any food, but never as much as that with chicken. Firstly, I do recommend finding a butcher or supplier you can trust. I'm a huge fan of the little poultry farms that you can often find around the outskirts of major town centers. The one major reason here is that the bird is most likely free range, rather then caged. I recently tried a major butcher chain and was not particularly impressed with the outcome. A free-ranged chicken yields moist and flavoursome flesh and has less fat content compared to their caged counter parts. (It should also be noted while I'm on this topic, a free-ranged chicken also has pinker flesh, so once cooked can have a pink tinge to it). The upside to visiting these little farms it that you can sometimes see the chickens themselves, whereas a butcher only have the bird wrapped in plastic in front of you, so you can be certain when you ask if the bird if free-ranged it will be (rather then trying to trust a large company trying to make quick cash).
But back onto the food safety issues. I do recommend having colour coded chopping boards, each dedicated to each meat and food type (just to reduce the risk of cross-contamination). Also, when handling chicken make sure your hands are as clean as possible and wash your hands well once you have completed your task. In terms of the actual prep of the chicken, I have recently learned a practice (obtained from a few sources) for preparing whole chickens for roast. Firstly, set a large pot of water to boil (large enough for the chicken) and a large bowl of iced water. Meanwhile, wash the bird under running cold water in a clean sink and remove any remaining feathers, washing both the exterior skin and the cavity, then drip dry. Once the pot is boiling, plunger the chicken in the boiling water for 30 seconds then remove and plunged the bird into the iced water. Repeat this step a second time, then allow as much water to drip out of the cavity as possible and pat dry the skin with paper towel. This procedure aims to kill any microbes that may be on the skin or within the cavity of the bird.
Preparing to Roast
Next, place the bird onto your roasting tin/pan (I like using one with a rack, as shown in the photos which always the excess juices and fat to drip off). I then stuff the bird with brown onions which have been peeled, washed and halved and garlic bulbs, which have the papery skin removed and the head of the bulb cut off. For the larger chickens I use two of each, whereas a smaller chicken only required one of each. Once the chicken has been stuffed close the cavity of the excess skin either with a sharp needle and string or just with either toothpicks or wooden skewer (as seen below).
Then drizzle the chicken with some olive oil and rub it into the skin. Next grind some sea salt and black pepper over the chicken and sprinkle the bird with sweet paprika and rub this into the bird. Then just throw the chicken into a preheated oven (at 150 degrees Celsius) and cook according to the bird's weight. I usually don't go off a set time. About 45 minutes into the cooking process the baste with its own juices and then every 20 minutes from then on. But determine when it's cooked when the juices run clear from the thigh. You can also use a digital probe if you have one, in which the chicken should be at least 60 degrees Celsius throughout the fresh. A last thing to note with cooking a chicken, the longer you cook it, then the hotter then flesh gets which leads to the water evaporating leaving the flesh dry (a chicken at 70 degrees Celsius would have lost a large percentage of water, so any hotter you would be losing even more).
Finally it is ready to serve, though just before serving we usually baste the chicken one last time. Our little tradition when we cook a roast chicken is to serve it with mashed potatoes and steamed peas, carrots and corn with a gravy made from the chicken juices.
It's just mouth watering, the taste of the onion and sweetness of the roast garlic penetrates the fresh of the chicken and with the crisp skin and gravy it just goes down so well.
