How do I roast a whole chicken?

[99redballoons]

As in \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=4&threadid=163747&stamp=060413223642\this thread} I have just bought an organic chicken and I want to use it up in as many ways as possible to get the most for the money. BUT I have never cooked a whole chicken before!! Please can someone start from the basics,
eg. how do I know if it needs cleaning out inside and how do I do this?
do I wash it, inside and out?
how long do I cook it for, weight to number of mins?
what can I garnish it with and how do I do that (ie. in the bottom of the pan, on the top, slit it, etc)?
how do I make gravy with the juices, do I need to strain it or something to get rid of the fat?
how do you cook the carcass to make stock?
should I invest in some roasting bags?

Thank you so much for the help. :)

go on then, DG, i need a bread sauce recipe

:o thanks so much girls. There's some lovely ideas. Supposed to be doing this on Sunday but just might bring it forward to tonight!!! Yummyyummy!

Sounds fool proof but who knows with me!

yum I love roast chicken, I do the pricked whole lemon inside bird thing too, it's delicious, just salt, pepper and oregano all over the chicken, lemon inside. Often make roast onions, tomatoes and potatoes to go with it, baked in chicken stock, with parmesan, olive oil and oregano again.

I love bread sauce, highlight of the Christmas dinner IMO

my temp is 180 and i don't bother pre heating the oven and in theory I do 20 mins per pound plus 20 and 15 mins rest but in practice I just poke it with a sharp stick to see if it's dead yet

sprinkle with salt and ground pepper first too

and tip the fat out of the cavity during cooking otherwise leave it alone

\link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,632-2132981.html\how about a nice bit o gammon? fantastic receipe here folks}

Bread Sauce:

Finely chop one small onion and soften in half a pint of milk over a very slow heat - takes about 20 mins. Don't let milk boil. (At this point, because my children don't like onion pieces, I blitz the milk and onions in a blender but that is not necessary.) Add fresh breadcrumbs (if you want to do it properly, you use only white bread and cut off the crusts) until the right consistency is formed - sorry can't be more specific, if you know what bread sauce should look like, you will know when you have got there - it takes about 4 slices of bread if you cut off crusts). Add a blob of butter (about half an ounce, maybe a bit more) and seasoning to taste.

Sorry there are not many specific weights , times etc. This recipe was learnt at my mother's side, nothign specific written down.

Mmmmmbread sauce, I will be adding a fistful of butter and some nutmeg. And eating it all myself

I just made some lovely cherry scones for our dinner! (don't tell Custy!)

Suzy, I have a feeling nutmeg might be something that would have originally gone into my mother's bread sauce, but neither she nor I particularly like it. But thanks for mentioning that as it is indeed something you could add to my recipe.

or is it mace , which of course is the outer casing of the nut of meg

Don't get me started on food, you know I could talk the hind leg off a donkey about it

i saw that - you housewife you

Another way to use a whole chicken - put it into a big casserole type dish with a lid. Roughly chop up any of the following: carrot, onion, couple of celery stalks, fennel, and tuck them round the chicken. Add a couple of bay leaves and a sprinkling of dried herbs (tarragon v nice). Add enough cold water to almost cover the chicken and bring to the boil. Put on lid and simmer gently for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, depending on the size of the bird. It's cooked when the meat starts to come off the bones.
Remove the chicken from the liquid and once cooled enough, remove the meat from the bones. You can use this meat in a pie, a risotto, cold with salad, in a soup - however you would otherwise use chicken.
Strain the liquid through a sieve (chuck the veg out) and either add some of the chicken for an instant soup or chill in the fridge (you can then remove the fat which will solidify on the surface) for use as fab chicken stock later.

Yeah!!! Thank you MN from saving me from the chore of washing meat!!!

I can't believe it, freedom! Probably saves a good 10 mins when you take bleaching the sink afterwards into consideration!

Can I ask a dumb chicken roasting question?

Can I put the roast potatoes around teh chicken in the same roasting dish to cook?

put in a roasting tray

crumble a chicken oxo cube over the top

cover in silver foil

bung in oven at 180 for 20 mins per 500g/lb plus 20 mins

30 mins before time up, take foil off but keep it to one side

take out of oven .. cover with foil for 10 mins

then carve and serve

...left over meat .. chicken and mushroom pie

... chicken carcass .. chicken stock .. then chicken soup

easiest food in the world

roast potatoes round chicken in same tray definitely (par-boil for 5 minutes first, drain and shake vigourously against lid .. then baste in the chicken fat and cook for about an hour basting every 20 mins or so)

domestickler- You can put the potatoes in the same dish but IME they don't come out so crispy - probably because modern chickens have so much water in. I boil my spuds for about 20 mins first, then put some butter & olive oil in a roasting dish & get it hot. When I drain the spuds, I tip them back & forth from the colander to the pan a few times to rough up the surface, then roll them around in the fat to get them covered . I give them an hour at gas mark 6.
btw I'm not saying they are healthy - just delicious!