ROAST CHICKEN

Only a few recipes tick the so damn easy and so damn delicious boxes at the same time. This roast chicken recipe does just that. You need to know how to rub salt and pepper on a chicken, cut up some veggies and shove the chicken in the oven and you’re done. You’ll end up with a golden, juicy roast chicken that fills your home with comfort. Brining the chicken with salt and pepper 1 hour before it goes into the oven ensure the skin stays crispy. And too delicious not to mention, are the root vegetables at the base of the pan that soak up all the chicken broth and caramelize as they char.

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DESCRIPTION

An any evening roast recipe with a prep time of 15 minute, a wait time of 1 hour and a cook time of 1 hour and 15 minutes.

INGREDIENTS

1 whole trussed chicken, 1kg to 1.2 kg
2 medium sized onions
5 BABY carrots (don’t use the big carrots)
5 stems of celery
2 tablespoons of salt
20 cracks of black pepper

Baby carrots

Black Pepper

Onions

Whole Chicken

Celery

Salt

METHOD

Step 1: Brining the chicken

Make sure you purchase a trussed chicken; this is a chicken with tied up wings and legs, which helps with even cooking. If there isn’t a trussed chicken on display, ask your butcher to truss one for you. Place a chopping board on your kitchen counter and place the chicken on the board. Pat down the chicken with a kitchen paper towel making sure your chicken is as dry as possible. Rub all sides of the chicken with the salt and pepper. With a toothpick, poke 20 holes into the chicken skin and throughout the chicken. (this is the crispy skin trick) Place the chicken on a plate and into the fridge uncovered for 30 minutes. Clean your chopping board.

Step 2: Prepping the vegetables

Wash all your vegetables. Cut your baby carrots in half lengthways, cut your onions into circular slices and chop your celery into bitesize cubes. Place all the chopped vegetables at the bottom of a roasting tray.

Step 3: Chicken and your oven

Once the initial 30 minutes is over, remove the chicken from the fridge and place it on the chopped vegetables and keep the tray on your kitchen counter. Pre heat your oven to 230 degrees Celsius for another 30 minutes. Your chicken will come to room temperature as your oven warms up.

Step 4: Cooking

Place your chicken into the oven and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Because all our ovens are different, when the chicken is done, a lot of juices would have seeped to the bottom of the tray and the veggies will start to char. Don’t worry if the vegetables start turning black in some corners, that mean everything is caramelizing perfectly.