oven roasted chicken

It's that time of the year where the apartment is filled with the smell of roasting fowl, maybe some seeping through the door onto the hallway, making the neighbours very hungry. Roasting a bird is not an easy task but it doesn't have to be so difficult either. I roasted my very first chicken for Thanksgiving this year and it was, according to my beloved food critic, fantastic. I will share with you the very simple method to oven roast your first chicken.

Prep: 2 hours
Cooking: 1.5 - 2 hours

1. Clean your chicken in running water. First, let's brine the chicken for tender and juicy meat. Fill a large bowl with cold water, add 1-2 large tablespoon of seasalt (according to your taste or size of the chicken) and soak the bird for about an hour.

2. Take the brined chicken out, clean it with running water and pat dry with paper towel. Place it in empty bowl and air chill in the fridge for an hour.

3. Take the chicken out of the fridge, now embrace it with pepper, herbs, butter and/or any seasoning you'd like. I used black pepper, garlic and Italian herb mix with butter.
IMPORTANT! Make sure you season it well. I mean even under the skin. That lump in the picture above is not fat, it is butter (well, butter is fat..) under the skin. This will make the skin crispier and the chicken breast moist. This process is little bit gross, but necessary for yummy, flavourful, moist chicken.

4. Chop any vegetables you like (onions, carrots, potatoes, etc) or repare a stuffig mix (which I have done along with veges). Place it in a large cooking pan and put the seasoned chicken on top.

5. Set the oven to 175 degrees (350F) . Now begin roasting your chicken. mmmmm can you smell that?
Make sure to regularly check your oven to see how your birdie is doing.

Here is my method:

• my chicken was about 1kg (2.2lbs)
• 1 hour 20 minutes, uncovered
• 10-15 minutes, raise the oven temp to 200 degrees (400F) (until skin is crisp/brown)
• 15-20 minutes, take it out of the oven, cover with aluminum foil, and cool.

Tip: Cook your chicken for 30 minutes per 500 grams of weight. Every 20 minutes or so take your chicken out of the oven and baste it with the juices that have collected in the tray or with butter if you have veges soaking up the chicken juice.

  

 

My recipe is based on multipl recipe searches online, but this one and this one have very easy to follow steps with pictures. Enjoy!



posted by rin