How to make a roast chicken really tasty?

[pairsinparis]

What are your tips for making a roast really good?

I usually do the chicken in a large tray with a lemon inside and butter under the skin. It's never realllllly tasty though.

Top tip is the chicken! We tend to eat less whole chickens but buy them from the butcher. Our butcher does Shropshire non free range that are about £7 for a good size and taste delicious. He thinks they taste better than the £13 free range ones and having tried both I agree.

Supermarket chickens are crap, the only one I've found ok is Sainsburys corn fed, but these have definitely changed supplier recently and aren't as good as they were.

Otherwise, like you half a lemon inside and either butter or olive oil on the skin. Also rest it for 20-30 mins minimum. At Christmas, I tend to rest for at least an hour while all the other vegetables cook.

Due to many family allergies and budget, we buy a cheap chicken from aldi, put a whole garlic bulb (broken in half) and cut up a lemon inside, the squeeze another lemon over the top, slow cook first (gas 3) then turn it upside down for a bit and then turn back upright and turn heat up (gas 7)and finish cooking.

Who can be arsed with butter under the skin? Just put a LOT of salted butter on the skin, as Nigella tells you, more salt and black pepper. Half a lemon inside.

We have a nice free range chicken about once a month rather than cheap chicken more frequently.

Garlic in the cavity with the lemon..tarragon and paprika over the butter. Lots of salt and pepper

I rub the chicken over with olive oil then salt and pepper, then surround it with stock in the roasting tin along with garlic, lemons and herbs and add some of these inside the chicken and cook it slowly for a couple of hours. Always tastes really good but I agree, the better the chicken the better the taste!

Cut a lemon in half, put it in the cavity. Smear butter over the top, then sprinkle lots of garlic salt and paprika over the top. Crumble a few bay leaves over then squeeze other half of the lemon over everything. Bit of the topping runs off, but no matter.
Sometimes add eg Rosemary.
Delicious! Tried all sorts and always go back to this formula.

A good, free range chicken*.

I usually brush mine all over with (melted) garlic/parsley butter - I nearly always have some left over in the freezer, from making garlic bread (with chopped parsley added). I just hack a bit off and shove it in the microwave to melt.
Half a large peeled onion inside, cut in half. Often a bit of dried sage too.

Also essential is proper gravy, made in the roasting tin.

*All of which will be used, inc. the carcass for stock.

Decent quality chicken. Lemon and a big chunk of butter in the cavity, plus whatever herbs you like (I like thyme or tarragon). Pat the skin dry and sprinkle salt on top. Into an oven at about 200 for 15 minutes then turn down to 170 for the rest of the cooking time. Baste the skin with the butter/juices regularly. Half an hour before it's done, pop two halved white onions beside it, in the juices. Don't cook it too long - lots of supermarket instructions give a cooking time that's on the long side.

When you take it out the oven, let it rest properly (foil over the top and a tea towel to keep warm), with a dish to catch the juices that come out. Put the onions and juices in a pan, pour off any obvious fat (keep it for frying potatoes later). Add some white wine or marsala and more herbs and reduce. Whizz it up with a stick blender so you've got lovely rich, thick onion gravy. Add the chicken juices back in. Eat.

I swear the gravy makes such a difference.

thyme

i made a roast chicken the other week - it was a very long time since I had made one
butter, lemon and thyme
rosemary potatoes

just delicious

i think the less often you have one, the better it is when you do have one.

Instead of pushing butter between skin and flesh, use mascarpone muxed with garlic

Farm shop chicken
Onion, carrot and celery used as trivet (and later gravy)
Thyme, garlic and half an onion stuffed inside for cooking.
Oil, flour, onion salt, garlic powder and black pepper sprinkled into skin.
15 mins before serving, remove the chicken and use the trivet veg and burnt on bits to make a gravy (I also add a stock pot and a few bisto granules)
Perfect

food52.com/recipes/17568-barbara-kafka-s-simplest-roast-chicken
I do it upside down which means no fat needed.

Get a very good chicken.
For crispy skin, dunk chicken in boiling water for one minute the night before, then let it rest in the fridge uncovered overnight. If you really want to go overboard, hairdryer when you take it out. Rub cavity with salt and pepper and skin with salt, pepper and goose fat.

1. Cut cold butter into cubes and roll in a mix of salt pepper and thyme OR tarragon then shove these under the skin together with slivers of sliced garlic

1. Fill the cavity with a lemon plus a quartered onion and more garlic

1. Roast upside down covered for most of time then uncover and turn breast side up for final 30mins

Run all over with some melted butter with herbs of choice mixed in. Then stick a third of a can of beer up its ass. Roast sitting on can.
Buy best chicken possible.

Buy the best you can afford. Cheap chicken tastes of nothing.

the best i can afford is a tesco chicken
it is fine for me not to be free range or organic

Another vote for organic free range chicken.

My go to is ridiculously simple to rave reviews.

• Take the chicken out of the fridge ~1 hour before cooking.
• Make sure the cavity of the bird is bone dry
• Quarter a lemon for the cavity + smashed garlic + fresh thyme
• Salt the bird
• Into a hot oven
• Rest before carving

Make sure not to over bake either.

Rub all over with garlic purée.

This stuff sprinkled on the skin is good and also cooking upside down on a rack over a roasting tray for half the time and then turning over.

Good chicken, enough butter and salt slathered on the skin to make a dietician blanch.

Roast in the bag ones cannot be beaten for succulence.

Garlic inside. I just cut a couple of cloves on half and the flavour permeates the flesh, particularly the breast.

You can't make a silk purse out if a sows ear. If we are having traditional roast chicken, I don't use a lemon.

I do very little to it except for a bit of butter and foil on the thighs. Herbs and a few cloves of garlic in the cavity. Roast for about 90 minutes depending on size. Set aside to rest and turn up oven to crisp roast potatoes. Drain most of fat from roasting tin, sprinkle with flour stirring constantly, add some boiling water and marigold powder, salt and pepper and bung in a glass of white wine. Carve chicken onto a serving platter and tip the juices over it.

I like to make a bit of stuffing as well and serve with a bit of cranberry sauce.

We usually have it with roasties, baked chantenay Carrots (in a dish with a tight lid knob of butter, salt, sprinkle of sugar, 1 dsp water) and either peas or green beans.

When I do use a lemon (and garlic) and more lemon is when I serve it with a herbed butter and lemon sauce, usually in summer. With new potatoes, peas, asparagus.

Chop parsley, chives, thyme, and add to melted butter and lemon juice and the chicken juices (I use quite a lot of herbs for this) salt, pepper and squash the cooked garlic cloves into it.

Carve the chicken onto a platter and pour on a little herb sauce, serving the rest in a jug.