Since my boyfriend moved in I've been looking for ways to help him feel at home, and a good number of those ways involve food. It's a Kiwi tradition of sorts to have a roast on Sunday night; so this weekend, I decided to roast a chicken.
About six months ago I came across a recipe that required me to flatten a chicken before roasting it, and I haven't looked back. Cooking the chicken this way has two advantages: first, it allows the meat to cook more evenly (preventing the breasts from drying out), and second, it makes it easier to get all of the skin nice and crispy (and we all know that crispy chicken skin is the best part).
To flatten the chicken I like to cut out the entire spine/neck using scissors (cut as close to the spine as you can so that you don't lose any beautiful leg meat). Then you just need to slice down the breastbone a touch so that you can open the chicken up like a book. Tuck the wings behind the head (if you can, this particular chicken wasn't all that flexible), and smother with butter and herbs to add extra flavour.
Roast the chicken at 425 degrees F. You'll want to roast it breast side down for the first 15 minutes; then pull it out, flip it over, and cook for another 45 minutes or so (until the breast meat is cooked and the juices run clear). When I flip the bird I like to add a strongly flavoured sausage to the pan (hot Italian or merguez)...then I can baste the chicken with the sausage drippings (every 15 minutes) to add even more flavour/crispiness to the skin.
About six months ago I came across a recipe that required me to flatten a chicken before roasting it, and I haven't looked back. Cooking the chicken this way has two advantages: first, it allows the meat to cook more evenly (preventing the breasts from drying out), and second, it makes it easier to get all of the skin nice and crispy (and we all know that crispy chicken skin is the best part).
To flatten the chicken I like to cut out the entire spine/neck using scissors (cut as close to the spine as you can so that you don't lose any beautiful leg meat). Then you just need to slice down the breastbone a touch so that you can open the chicken up like a book. Tuck the wings behind the head (if you can, this particular chicken wasn't all that flexible), and smother with butter and herbs to add extra flavour.
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| Any herb will do, though rosemary and thyme are natural choices for chicken. |
Since a roast chicken is no good without gravy it's important to make some of that as well. To make mine I started by browning some crumbled sausage (the same kind I used to baste the chicken) with an onion; I then deglazed the pan with a little white wine, added some water, and simmered the mixture (along with the spine that I removed from the chicken) for about 40 minutes before blending with my handy (ha!) hand blender (make sure to remove the spine from the pot first). I used this as the base for my gravy...adding a slurry of flour and water, and simmering until I got the right consistency (add salt and pepper to taste).
Sides for such a dinner are simple: mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli. Served with a glass of the wine that I used to deglaze the pan when making the gravy.....
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| And the sausages (Merguez) too, of course. |
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