Looking to learn how to make roast chicken? I have made a number of roasts dinners since Rach and I became a couple, however up until a couple of years ago I always made a roast with Beef or Pork. Chicken for me has always been one of those dishes that I tended to shy away from, mainly because of the risk of undercooking it.
This is no longer an issue with practice though 🙂 When making chicken it’s important to ensure that it doesn’t dry out too much, as there is not a lot worse than really dry chicken as it can be very tasteless. A great way of making sure it keeps it moisture and liquid is by basting it properly and ensuring it doesn’t dry out during cooking.
This recipe on making a roast chicken can be a little fiddly but trust me, the results are incredible. NOTE: Do not wash your raw chicken….I have seen a number of recipes that tell you to make sure you wash it first, DONT! If you wash the chicken then it can actually increase your chances of getting ill, this is because the bacteria lives on the skin of the chicken and if washed could cause it to spread. This bacteria is killed during the cooking process.
How To Make Roast Chicken Quick Recipe
PrintHow To Make Roast Chicken
Roast chicken makes an amazing sunday dinner, this under the skin butter really helps give it a nice crispy skin with lots of flavour
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 70 minutes
- Yield: 4 people 1x
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: English
Ingredients
- 1 in Chicken roughly 900gweight
- 1 Large Lemon (Half skin grated)
- 4 Slices of Parma Ham
- 3 Cloves of Garlic (Chopped)
- 120 g of softened butter
- 5 leaves Sprigs of Thymefinely (chopped)
- 2 tsp of Paprika
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven at 220C
- Place the butter, garlic, grated lemon peel, parma ham, thyme and paprika into a bowl
- Mix together with hands to ensure everything is well combined
- Prise skin of chicken gradually from the meat, ensuring not to tear the skin
- Place butter mixture under the skin and ensure well spread
- Cover the outside of the chicken with remaining butter
- Place in the oven for 45 minutes, adding additional butter every 15 minutes to the outside
- Take out of the oven and add any parboiled potatoes and return to the oven for another 45 minutes or until fully cooked (Juices run clear/check with Thermometer)
- Continue adding a little butter when skin begins to get too dry
- Remove from oven when cooked and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes
How To Make Roast Chicken Detailed Recipe
Pre-heat the oven at 220C-240C
Roast Chicken Butter
The first thing I focused on was the butter, this is going to be rubbed under the actual skin and not on the top which helps the chicken absorb its flavour. In a Bowl place 120 grams of softened butter, its important that it is soft as you are going to be spreading it onto the chicken.
Chop 3 garlic cloves thinly and add this to the butter, along with grated skin of half a lemon. Get 4 slices of parma ham and slice it into roughly 1cm squares and put these into the butter mixture along with 5 springs of thyme leaves that have been finely chopped. The finally thing to add is 2 tsp of paprika, which gives it great flavor.
Once all ingredients are in the bowl you’re going to get your hands dirty, so make sure you clean them first ;). Stick your hands in and mix all of the ingredients together so everything is fully combined with the butter. Once it’s all mixed together you want to wash your hands again, this was a pain to get the butter off!!
Easing Chicken Skin Away From Meat
This bit is very fiddly, as it’s important to not pierce the skin so you have to be very slow and careful. Once you have untied the chicken legs they should easily come out of the cavity, you should see the skin on the breast just above the cavity. You can lift this up and place your fingers slowly into this and gradually prise the skin away from the meat.
Ideally you want to get your hands as far in as possible to prise as much skin off as possible, if you can try and also remove it from the wings. As I said it can be fiddly and as long as you go slow you shouldn’t cause any tears in the skin. Now that the skin has been prised away from the meat, get your butter mixture and place this under the skin.
Try and spread it out as much as possible to cover as much of the meat as possible in the mixture. You want to use most of it for under the skin but save some to give the outside of the chicken a good coating of butter, this will help to crisp off the chicken skin. Make sure once you have done this that you wash your hands. Get your Lemon and with a nice pierced it all around and then place this into the chicken cavity and then place in a roasting dish.
Don’t forget, anytime you touch the chicken wash your hands! Place the chicken in the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes, check on it every 15 minutes and add some additional butter to the top to ensure it doesn’t dry out. If you notice the skin burning to quickly then the oven may be too high so turn it down slightly.
After 45 minutes If you are having roast potatoes then now is a perfect time to add the parboiled potatoes to the roasting dish (this gives them even more flavour) Put the chicken back in for another 45 minutes, again add additional butter every so often to ensure the skin doesn’t dry out too much.
The chicken should now be ready, its important to check that its cooked by checking that juices run clear or use a meat thermometer. Once cooked allow it to rest for 20-30 minutes and then enjoy!!