SUNDAY ROAST CHICKEN

ROAST CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

1 whole chicken

50g butter 

STUFFING

100 - 300 g breadcrumbs ( depending on what else you put in the stuffing. I just put a few rolls or slices of bread in a food processor)

1 onion, chopped finely

herbs - rosemary, thyme, sage etc

OPTIONAL STUFFING INGREDS

you can use anything you want in the stuffing, really. You can even just chop a lemon in half and put that in the breast cavity.
Just add whatever combination of flavours you want to use.
For example, any of these could go in:

pork sausagemeat

chicken liver

1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped

Grated lemon rind

1 egg (use to bind the ingredients together if it's too dry and crumbly)

1) Preheat oven to 190C

2) Fry chopped onion and any other ingredients for the stuffing until just cooked

3) Mix stuffing ingredients together, bind with egg if necessary. Wash chicken, rinse out breast cavity, pat dry with a paper towel

4) Place chicken on roasting tray, breast-side up, and put stuffing inside

5) Cut butter up and dab over surface of chicken

6) Put in oven. Every 20 minutes get it out and spoon hot fat over the skin

7) According to the recipe I normally follow, you cook for 20 minutes per 500g + 20 minutes extra. So a 1.5kg bird will take approx 60 minutes. However, I find I normally have to do it for a little longer but it depends on your oven (see below for how to check it's cooked)

8) For the last 20 minutes put the oven up to 220C - this will make the skin brown and crispy (you eat the skin as part of the roast)

9) To test whether it's cooked, stick the point of a knife or skewer in the thigh - the juices should run clear. If you pull the leg away from the body it should give easily. Last of all you can tip the chicken up and the juices running from the body cavity should be clear and not pink. The breast meat will all be white, but some of the leg meat can look a little pink. As long as the juices run clear it is cooked

10) Tip the oil from the chicken into a saucepan for the gravy. Let the chicken rest for 20 minutes under a piece of foil and a tea towel after cooking. You can use this time to cook the veg and make the gravy