Perfect Roast Chicken: a tutorial

Special thanks to my sisters M. and N. for assisting me with this post, by taking pictures and acting as an extra pair of hands in the kitchen. Hope you guys enjoyed the chicken as much as I did!

Woohoo, here we go - my first cooking tutorial! The irony of someone such as myself, a relative newbie in the kitchen, providing any kind of tutorial related to cooking is amusing and embarrassing in equal proportions, but this roast chicken has garnered such rave reviews from friends and family every single time I have made it that I am not as mortified as I should be at sharing it with you all.

The recipe derives from a mish-mash of sources, both in terms of inspiration and the scientific principles behind cooking times,  method of preparation, etc. For example, sticking the chicken in the fridge for a few hours prior to roasting is a tip I learnt from Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Roast Chicken, and it does indeed guarantee extra-crispy skin. Rubbing some sort of fat, seasoned with salt and herbs, between the flesh of the chicken and its skin is something advised by many cookbooks and bloggers, and it makes such a difference in terms of helping the chicken meat to retain its moisture. The fact that there is such a variety of "contributors" to this recipe makes me extra proud of it.

So, without further ado, here's my very first cooking tutorial:


How to make the perfect roast chicken!

Get yourself a medium to large raw, whole chicken, around 1.5-2kg. Free-range and/or organic is always best when it comes to poultry. It's also expensive, unfortunately :( Anyway, remove the pad of fat that is sometimes present inside the cavity of the chicken. If it is there, keep it because we're going to use that later!

Wash the chicken thoroughly under cold, running water. Make sure you clean inside the cavity as well. If the chicken is extra-dirty, with some hair still attached, you can use a coarse-grained salt to "scrub" the chicken. Just rub it vigorously over the skin and and inside the cavity, and rinse off with water. Pat dry with a paper towel.

Now, prepare the fat mixture that we're going to insert under the skin. Jamie Oliver used butter in his roast turkey. You could do the same here, but I personally don't like the smell of melted/cooked butter (but okay with it in finished, baked products ;P). So, I use animal fat instead. So far, I have tried rendered Wagyu lard (which I found at Victor Churchill) and, on this occasion, goose fat. Both gave good results.

Goose fat (left) and rendered wagyu lard (right)

Into three, generous tablespoonfuls of your fat of choice add: 2tsp of dried garlic granules, 2tblsp of dried herbs (I used a pre-mixed blend of thyme, rosemary, marjoram, basil, oregano and sage, but feel free to play around with different ratios of these and/or other herbs.), 1/2 tsp of ground (black or rainbow) peppercorns, and 1-2tsp of salt.

The line-up; salt not pictured.

Put all the aforementioned ingredients into a bowl.

Mix everything together to form a paste, and set aside.

Okay, moving onto the chicken. We now need to separate the skin from the underlying flesh. Remember that Maggie Beer episode from this year's Masterchef Australia where all the contestants were gingerly prying the skin off the chicken at a snail's pace, terrified that the whole thing would rip apart without a moment's notice? That sent me into a state of paranoia the first time I did this, but guess what? The skin of a raw chicken is almost impossible to rip apart with your bare hands. It's incredibly tough and elastic, and as long as you don't have inch-long nails, or a pre-existing tear in the skin, there is nothing to worry about. 

Begin by inserting your fingers (oh, here we go...) between the skin and flesh. Then just...sorta splay your fingers out and wiggle them around, breaking apart all those connective tissue fibres. Assist the process with your other hand by pinching away the skin.

It's not what it looks like. Please, I can explain...

Do the same with the other side of the chook. Once that highly pleasant experience is over and done with, you need to salt the chicken all over. Simply sprinkle salt over the skin of the chicken, and inside the cavity, really rubbing it in.

Salting the inside of the cavity.

Remember that pad of fat we removed at the beginning? Insert that now under the skin over the breast of the chicken. The reason I do this is because I reason that the breast, being the leanest and therefore most likely to dry out portion of the chicken, needs the extra insulation.

Placing the fat pad under the skin, over the breast of the chicken.

Now take the mixture of fat and seasoning and stuff it under the skin. Use roughly equal amounts for both sides of chicken, reserving about a 2tsp-worth for rubbing over the skin later.

A scoop of the fat and seasoning mixture, about to be stuffed under the skin.

Inserting the fat and seasoning mixture. Make sure it covers most areas under the skin.

Remember to do this for both sides of the chicken! With the remaining two teaspoons of fat and seasoning, rub over the skin of the chicken, on both sides. This will ensure that your chooky has a nice sheen once roasted, and that the skin will be extra crispy.

Gratuitous blogger pic!

Make sure you rub the fat over the drumsticks and wings as well.

Now it's time to truss the chicken. This step is optional, but it does make the chicken look a lot nice after roasting. More importantly though, it makes the chicken easier to maneuver when you flip the chicken onto its other side half-way through roasting. I am, by no means, an expert at trussing birds. I just sorta played around with the string until everything was bound together.

String for trussing.

Okay, this goes over and that end under...

...and, voila!

Tuck the wings close to the body and keep them in place with another loop of string:

Another optional step: I like to use a toothpick to pin together the ends of the skin over the hole where the neck of the chicken used to be. I'm not exactly sure what effect (if any) that has on the flavour, but it does make for good presentation.

Soaking the toothpick is water beforehand stops it from burning in the oven.

That's one less hole to worry about.

Excellent, we're almost done! All you have to do now is pop the prepped bird into the fridge and let it chill for 3 hours minimum. As I've said before, the fridge will dehydrate the bird so that the skin, once roast, gets super crispy. Yum.

Excuse the fridge mess.

After chilling, take the chicken out 30 minutes prior to roasting. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). We will be using a roasting pan with a rack to cook the chicken. Something that looks like this:

Mine isn't nearly as pro-looking like this. Feel free to improvise using a cooling rack over a normal roasting pan.

This allows the juices and fat from the chicken to drip down, so the chicken doesn't have a soggy side.

Roasting times, according to weight, can be found here.

Flip the chicken onto its other side halfway through roasting. Once done roasting, remove from oven, and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Carve, shred, or rip the drumsticks off with your bare hands and go at it cavepeople-style...doesn't matter how you serve it, it's delicious hot and cold. I'm salivating as I type this!

So, I hope you've found this tutorial helpful! Do try, and let me know how it turned out! :D

Recipe for the Perfect Roast Chicken

Preparation time: 3.5 hours in total (1/2 hr for prepping the chicken, minimum 3 hours chilling in fridge.)

Roasting time: Depends on the weight of the raw chicken; for a 2kg bird, roughly 1.5 hours.

Ingredients

1 x medium- to large-sized bird (around 1.5-2kg)

3 generous tablespoons of fat of choice (butter, animal lard, etc.)

2 teaspoons of dried garlic granules

2 tablespoons of dried herbs (I used a pre-mixed blend of thyme, rosemary, marjoram, basil, oregano and sage)

1/2 teaspoon of ground black or rainbow peppercorns

1-2 teaspoons of salt (to be used inside the fat and seasoning mixture)

1 teaspoon of salt (for salting the skin and cavity)

(optional) Extra salt if you want to scrub the chicken beforehand to clean it before rinsing it off

Method

1. Remove the pad of fat from inside the cavity of the chicken (if it's still in there by the time you get the chicken). Save this for later.

2. Wash the chicken thoroughly under cold, running water. Make sure you clean inside the cavity as well. If the chicken is extra-dirty, with some hair still attached, you can use a coarse-grained salt to "scrub" the chicken. Just rub it vigorously over the skin and and inside the cavity, and rinse off with water. Pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside while you prepare the fat mixture.

3. Prepare the fat and seasoning mixture that will be inserted between the skin and flesh of the chicken. Combine the fat, garlic granules, dried herbs, ground peppercorns and 1-2 tsp salt in a bowl and mix to form a paste. Set aside.

4. Separate the skin from the underlying flesh, on both sides of the chicken. 

5. Take the fat pad that was removed earlier and insert it under the skin over the breast meat of the chicken.

6. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of salt over the skin of the entire chicken, and another 1/2 tsp into the cavity of the chicken. Rub well with fingers.

7. Spoon out two-teaspoons' worth of the fat and seasoning mixture and set aside to use later for rubbing over the skin of the chicken. Divide the rest of the fat mixture into equal portions. Insert one portion under the skin over the breast side of the chicken, distributing it evenly so that it covers that whole side. Insert the other portion under the skin over the other side of the chicken, distributing it evenly.

8. Rub the reserved 2 tsp of fat mixture over the skin of the entire chicken, making sure you cover the drumsticks and wings as well.

9. Truss the chicken with string, and use a toothpick to "stitch" up the hole over where the neck used to be.

10. Place the trussed chicken into the refrigerator and allow to chill for a minimum of 3 hours.

11. Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes prior to roasting. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). 

12. Put chicken in a roasting pan with a rack and roast for an amount of time as specified here, according to the weight of the uncooked chicken. 

13. Remove from oven after done roasting, and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Eat, and enjoy!

Checkerboard cookies for Christmas

What's black and white, crumbly and buttery, and look so impressive as a gift for friends and family this Christmas?

Actually, these are brown and white. Or brown, and some sort of light beige. Oh, never mind.

Checkerboard cookies, of course!

I used to make cookies all the time - shortbread, choc chip, biscotti, gingerbread, oatmeal...you name it, I've probably tried my hand at making it. It was all thanks to this book I purchased a while back:

"More than 300 great cookie, biscuit, bar and brownie recipes". That's a lot of recipes to get through.

Recently though, cookies and bars have sort of taken the back-burner to more grandiose projects like swiss meringue buttercream-frosted triple-layer cakes, gingerbread houses, home-made ice creams, and traditional Chinese pastries. There are simply too many exciting, new things to try making, and the humble cookie, whilst delicious, just doesn't hold the same appeal.

But these checkerboard cookies aren't exactly humble, are they? In fact, there's something quite haute couture about these. Must be the chequered pattern.

Oh look, some pinwheels seem to have insinuated themselves into the lot.

I wish I could say these were a cinch to make, but in truth these were actually quite fiddly, and tested my patience and cool on more than one count. The key is to work fast. And mentally prep yourself beforehand. Read through the instructions multiple times, and plan how you're going to do things. If you're anything like me in the kitchen (disorganised, spontaneous, can't-find-the-essential-ingredient-when-you need it, etc.), these may take a bit of practice before you get them right. Not that mine are perfect by any means. If you want to see real nice ones, check out Elissa's at 17 and Baking and Vera's at Baking Obsession. Now those are some beautiful checkerboard cookies.

More pinwheels! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee... (geddit? xD)

I had some leftover dough trimmings, so I layered them up and made them into pinwheel cookies. No biggie.

And, to complete my Christmas cookie gift packages, I made some tiny, tiny gingerbread people. They're so cute!

The recipe for the checkerboard cookies can be found at Baking Obsession. Her cookies are so beautiful! 

Now, to hand out those edible gifts!

Jamie Oliver's 30-minute meal for lunch

In addition to being an amazing artist, a skilled textiles designer, a compassionate human being, and the best friend a girl could ever ask for, my friend H. is an excellent cook. I jump at any and all opportunities to dine at her place (wait, does that make me a scab? Moving on...), because it means being treated to a veritable feast, regardless of the nature of the meal in question.

My contribution to the table: a herb roasted chicken.

H. was quite emphatic that we were not to bring a thing, but I just couldn't resist trying my hand (again) at roasting a chicken. It's so simple to do, but it looks so darned impressive. Especially if you truss the bird, which, as you can see from above, is something I've had little practice in ;D Anyway, I knew H. would forgive me for being a bit of a show-off once she tasted the chook. I'll write up the recipe in a future post.

My beauuutiful chooky, all shredded up and ready to be devoured.

H. chose one of Jamie Oliver's 30-minute meal plans for our lunch. Seriously, who doesn't love Jamie Oliver? That man is single-handedly responsible for my willingness to venture beyond the realm of toss-together-various-unrelated-ingredients-and-call-it-a-salad and start cooking for real. And yet, I still don't own a copy of Jamie's 30 Minute Meals. I guess it's because his recipes are found easily enough on the Internet through people's food blogs; yet another testament to the popularity and user-friendliness of his work.

Berry fruit punch

The fruit punch is something we're used to seeing at H.'s parties, but that doesn't stop us from ooh-ing and aah-ing when we first catch sight of it sitting on her pristine kitchen counter. While H. works diligently at putting together our lunch, myself and her other guests lounge about, sipping at the cool, refreshing punch and munching on crackers and dips.

Hummus at the bottom and a salmon & cream cheese spread on top. The salmon spread is H.'s mother's own recipe, and the hummus is from a local restaurant. H. swears that it's the best hummus in Sydney.

The reference text. No copyright infringement intended.

There was a great balance of flavours and textures across the meal. The courgette salad, consisting of thinly sliced strips of zucchini (we are in Australia, after all!) and bocconcini  tossed together with olive oil, lemon juice and mint, was a refreshing accompaniment to the rest of the dishes. (ETA: my friend H. advised me just then, after reading the post, that the recipe for this salad comes from another one of Jamie's 30-minute meals).

Courgette salad.

Something which I ought to have tried long before this: pan-frying pancetta.

This made the house smell amazing. I got told off for repeatedly stealing pieces right out of the pan.

The fried pancetta was then chopped into bite-sized pieces and scattered over baby salad leaves. Instead of the melon the recipe called for, H. subbed in grapes. Salty + sweet = WIN.

Prosciutto Pancetta & melon grape salad.

The carbohydrate component of the meal came from the pasta, which was boiled and then tossed in a curious conglomeration of ingredients:

Instant pasta sauce: just add pasta!

Fascinating; I've never made pasta sauce like this before. All the good stuff in there made for a rich, creamy, and...highly nutritious dish ;D

The bountiful spread:

We had to take a break after this before we moved onto the desserts. Yes, we had a separate dessert course for lunch. I told you it was a veritable feast.

Just a gratuitous picture of yours truly, doing what she does best: playing sous chef to someone who knows what they're doing in the kitchen =D

Moving onto the desserts! H. made half a dozen pear meringue tarts from Jamie's book. I love the browning on the meringue. Guess I don't need to buy a blow-torch after all for my upcoming lemon meringue pie project. The oven seems to do a fine job of it.
 

Pear meringue tart.

P., another friend, made dark chocolate truffles (no added sugar!) and dusted them with kinako (roasted soybean powder), which was an interesting and pleasant twist on an old favourite.

Chocolate truffles dusted with kinako.

I brought along some lemon curd friands (recipe coming soon!):

As well as freshly churned vanilla bean ice cream (see: my previous post):

If we were stuffed before...we were pretty much immobile by this point.

We all retired to H.'s sofa, and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up, making fun plans for the rest of these holidays, and simply...digesting.

It was the best time I've had in months.

Vanilla bean ice cream: a tangible (and delectable) proof that homemade is best.

Is it really December? It sure doesn't feel like December. I have yet to venture outdoors without a jacket, and I still require two, thick quilts at night to keep my toesies warm.

So, my questions are:

1) Is summer really here?

2) Should I retrieve my long-sleeved pyjama tops from the back of the closet?

3) Is it too early to crank out quart after quart of homemade ice cream as a pre-emptive measure against the January heatwaves?

Not sure about 1) and 2), but 3) I can answer with ease: definitely not! Especially since an iced dessert aficionado like myself enjoys eating ice cream so much that cold weather rarely factors into the equation.

Usually, when the craving for something sweet, creamy and chilled strikes, I promptly drag my greedy behind to the nearest gelato/ice cream store and order the richest-looking flavours on offer (with an internal pledge to eat healthy for the next few days). It's usually a scoop of some permutation of chocolate, paired with a dessert-based one like tiramisu, boysenberry cheesecake, or cookies 'n' cream. Or, if I happen to be within the vicinity of Passionflower, or a similar store carrying Asian flavours, I'd invariably pick the black sesame. Vanilla - boring, old, artificial-tasting vanilla - is usually dismissed without a second thought.

I don't know what compelled me to choose vanilla ice cream when I decided to test out the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker that my friends gifted me for my 21st birthday (I also got a food processor! My friends know me too well xD). Maybe it was the fact that I had a few vanilla beans to use up. Or because my siblings happen to like vanilla ice cream. Or perhaps some part of me instinctively knew that the fact that I would be using only the freshest and highest quality ingredients I could get my hands on would make this vanilla ice cream anything but boring, old, and artificial-tasting.

One lesson learned: always trust your instincts! This vanilla bean ice cream was amazing. I mean, just looking at that picture below...it would look right at home on a Blue Ribbon ad, wouldn't you agree? ;D I love the visible specks of the vanilla bean seeds. And did I mention how creamy and smooth this was? Totally worth the money- and calorie-splurge on Pura Double Thick Cream, with a minimum milk fat content of 48%. No wonder it tasted like spoonfuls of paradise.

 Recipe for Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Adapted from David Lebovitz


Makes 1 litre (1 quart)

Ingredients

1 cup (250ml) full cream milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (150g) white granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean
2 cups (500ml) double cream (I recommend minimum 48% milk fat), chilled in fridge until needed.
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used Queen's Natural Vanilla Extract)


Method

1. Heat the milk, salt and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low flame. Do not boil the milk; the aim is to dissolve the sugar in the liquid.

2. Split the vanilla bean pod length-ways and scrape the seeds into the milk. Give the milk a gentle whisk to disperse the vanilla seeds. Add the bean pod to the milk. Cover the saucepan, remove from heat, and allow to infuse for one hour.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. After an hour of infusing the milk with the vanilla bean, remove the bean pods. Rewarm the infused milk over a low flame. Pour a third of the milk into the egg yolks gradually, whisking constantly. This is to stop the egg yolks from cooking from the added heat. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan containing the remaining two-thirds of the milk.

4. Cook the egg yolk and milk mixture over low heat, stirring constantly. Use a heat-resistant spatula, as this will allow you to scrape the bottom of the saucepan. Do not stop stirring and scraping, as the mixture at the bottom of the pan will scramble like that! if unattended (talking from experience here).

5. Once the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of the spatula, remove from heat. Taking it off the heat at the right time is a science in itself, and takes a bit of experience, guesswork and luck. Haha, practice makes perfect :D Allow to cool slightly.

6. Take the double cream out of the fridge and pour/scrape into yet another bowl. Set a strainer over the top of the bowl containing the cream. Strain the cooked eggs and milk (now known as a "custard) into the cream. Stir together until completely incorporated. Then strain the entire mixture for guaranteed smoothness.

7. Stir in the teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pour the mixture into an air-tight container, and refrigerate for a minimum of 6 hours. I left mine in the fridge for 12 hours.

8. Once mixture has chilled sufficiently, pour it into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.