Clueless and cooking chicken - some advice please.

[smoggii]

Hi all,

I am a complete novice cook but really trying hard

Family is coming for tea tonight and i'm doing chicken dinner. Chicken needs two hours to cook, they are coming at 5 I am out from 1-4.

Is it safe to cook the chicken this morning then leave it on low to keep warm while i'm out?

If so what temperature should I leave it on so that it doesn't burn the chicken to a crisp or my house down.

Thanks

Hello Smoggi, not unless you want to give everyone a does of food poisoning, either cook it this morning, leave it to cool, refrigerate & serve cold or put it on at four & eat at six - how big is the chicken? May not take that long anyway.

I'm so glad I asked I really should leave cooking to the experts. I will put it on when I get back and dish up around sixish.

Thank you x

Well, my oven has a setting of 80 degrees for keeping the food warm and as most bacteria is killed at 60 degrees, that would be safe. But, it does dry the meat out a bit. Much better to serve it freshly roasted imo.

what you could do is dress the chicken before you go out and put it in the fridge until you get home at which point you would preheat your oven and pop the chicken in. It wouldn't be complete done by 5, but dependin the size an quality of the chicken (i find organic chickens tend to cook quicker), it may not take 2 hours at all. This way, at least the family get a fresh hot chicken and they can all chit chat until it's ready.

just realized my message is too late! Sorry, hope you manage to get it all together and it's delivious!