How to do the perfect roast chicken

[PandasCatsWolves]

What's your perfect way to cook a roast chicken?

To cook slower on lower heat or hotter and faster?

It's the one thing I don't cook that often and I've not had a great result last few times I have done it.

Please share your wisdom

@FinallyFluid

I buy a super one, home educate, red brick university, masters, phd chicken from the farm shop, leave it on the side and somehow between DH and the chicken they sort it.

... and as a true MN chicken, then it feeds the entire family for a month, @FinallyFluid?

Not a month.... I am a disgrace to MN, we get a decent stir-fry out of it, and then DH makes stock and we have a risotto.

A good chicken to start with. A squeeze of lemon over, breast down at 180 degrees. Turn over after a bit, more lemon over and cook until the leg waggles in its socket. Times depend upon the size.

Parboil the potatoes and carrots then tip in and stir well. When you take the bird out, crank the oven up for the last 10 minutes for the veges.

Dry the skin very well. Dry skin crisps well.

Some butter under the skin, the lemon juice and salt on top. Roast first on high, then lower the temp to finish cooking.

@PandasCatsWolves Spatchcocking is easy. Turn the chicken onto its breast. Use kitchen scissors to cut from the parsons nose all the way top to bottom along the belly and through the "ribs". Turn it back over and fold the thighs and drum sticks out to the sides; press down to crack the spine.

@HeyMicky
Thank you. I will try that. Meal today was for a guest so I didn't want to try something new. I will do this next time. 😊

I use Nigella’s recipe and would always buy 1.5kg chickens and if feeding more people then buy more of them. 75m in a 225C oven is enough if the oven is preheated and the bird is at room temperature.
I stuff half a lemon and some salt inside and smear with olive oil.

Spatchcocking is brilliant, means almost any chicken will cook in about an hour...maybe a little longer if it has very burly thighs!

Otherwise I have one of those enamel oval roasters with a lid and they are really good

My two main tips would be to snip off the leg elastics and let it brandish its legs akimbo and the other is to get a pokey meat thermometer, once that is up to 75c/165f then it will be perfectly done I am happy to whip it out of the oven at 70 and leave it to rest for half an hour in the lidded roaster and the temp always goes up to 75

I was always a bit sniffy about the temperature probes before, but really with chicken in particular it has made a great improvement, before I'd always give it another 10 mins to be sure and it never really needed it.
It's a cheap one from amazon and works in c or f

also...i forgot ...if I am spatchcocking I cut the spine right out, so turn chicken upside down, use kitchen shears and imagine a line from each side of the Parson's Nose right to the neck end and cut along both.
One cut is sufficient to open the chicken but removing the spine completely makes it neater.

you can keep it in the pan to roast if you want to make stock later, or boil it with the giblets (if there are any) for gravy.

Try not to eat the crispy skin as it comes out of the oven (so hard!) rest with it on, much more juicer.

No need to fanny around too much.

Good quality chicken.
Cut a lemon in half and place both halves in the cavity.
Rub some olive oil all over.
Season generously with salt, pepper, paprika and maybe some dried thyme.
Place in a roasting tray on a trivet of thick sliced onion (an onion sliced in 3).
Cook in an oven (fan 180°c).
Baste once or twice.

That's it. Comes out with crispy skin, moist meat, and still tasting of chicken. And the juices/onion make a lovely base/addition to the gravy.

Sutton Hoo have some amazing variations on Roast Chicken - super delish and easy to follow recipes

www.suttonhoochicken.co.uk/chicken-recipes?category=Roasts

@Shmithecat2

No need to fanny around too much.

Good quality chicken.
Cut a lemon in half and place both halves in the cavity.
Rub some olive oil all over.
Season generously with salt, pepper, paprika and maybe some dried thyme.
Place in a roasting tray on a trivet of thick sliced onion (an onion sliced in 3).
Cook in an oven (fan 180°c).
Baste once or twice.

That's it. Comes out with crispy skin, moist meat, and still tasting of chicken. And the juices/onion make a lovely base/addition to the gravy.

Pretty much this. Only difference is that (for a 1.5kg bird) 190-200c for an hour is plenty as long as you cover with tinfoil for 15 minutes when it comes out of the oven. I’d dispense with the onion too and just do it in a shallow enamel roaster, basting just once after about 40 minutes. Couldn’t be easier.

A Coqopan tray is a game changer!

www.amazon.co.uk/Coqopan-Chicken-Roaster-Steel-featured/dp/B081KF9XRF?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

It steams the inside at the same time as roasting - so it only takes 50 minutes to roast a 2kg chicken.

Because it’s a shorter time you use a higher temperature which gives lovely crispy skin without overcooking the meat. Great results every time!