It’s Sunday, and I picked up a chicken whilst in the supermarket yesterday shopping for fruit to make a smoothie which I hope counteracts the effects of the previous evening’s beer. I also decided to make marmalade for some reason, but that’s a different story. I can’t be bothered to do anything complicated, so it’s roast chicken, roast potatoes, and leek and onions (healthyish?).
I was looking for cooking instructions, and failed to find the 20 minutes per 500g plus 20 minutes instructions, which it turns out were written on the chicken. Most recipes on the internet seem to just say 1 hour 20, which isn’t particularly helpful unless you happen to buy the same sized chicken. I then realised I had a thermometer and probe, which would surely be better, so I looked up the correct internal temperature. The US FDA says 74C, but this site has far more interesting information. It turns out to kill the bacteria you have to hold the temperature for a certain amount of time depending on how high it is. Makes sense. 74C is instant annihilation, so seems a bit extreme. The aforementioned site describes it as “the bacterial equivalent of shoving a stick of dynamite into an anthill”. Here’s the data (metrified):
| Temperature | Time |
|---|---|
| 58°C | 68.4 minutes |
| 60°C | 27.5 minutes |
| 63°C | 9.2 minutes |
| 66°C | 2.8 minutes |
| 68°C | 47.7 seconds |
| 71°C | 14.8 seconds |
| 74°C | Instant |
74C seems daft, and probably means it’s guaranteed to be overcooked. I’m not waiting an hour, or even half an hour, at 58C or 60C respectively, so 63C seems like a reasonable one to go for, and I’ll leave it in for 10 minutes once it gets there (the temperature will carry on rising, so this seems like a safe option). This is my thermometer, it was £30 or so and includes Bluetooth connectivity, which is a complete waste of time. It won’t connect to my phone when the distance is only about 6m from the oven to the couch. It does have an alarm which goes off at a specified temperature though, which is great.
So, I’m going to roast the chicken, I like the idea of a thyme oil, and lemon with herbs inserted from here, and I’ve got roasties, leek, onion, garlic I guess… Full ingredient list at end of page. I pre heated the oven to 190C.
My herb garden is looking a little sorry, but provided some thyme, rosemary and a little sage (because it was there).
Crème fraîche, lemon onions, potatoes, herbs, leeks…
Stuck some herbs and garlic in a pestle and mortar. Bashed it a bit.
Added some oil and butter. Smashed it together.
Half cut a lemon and stuck some thyme and rosemary in it.
Smothered the chicken in the butter. Stuck the probes in the chicken. Apparently between the thigh and breast is the best place, and this bore out. The breast was up to temperature about 10 minutes earlier. Added a couple of onions in quarters into the roasting tray along with a couple of cloves of garlic. Lifting the chicken off the base of the tray is meant to help it cook better, so mine’s slightly elevated on the onion. Sometimes I half an onion and balance it on the halves. I think that’s Delia’s method.
Set the alarm for 63C. Stuck the chicken in the oven, and immediately turned the temperature down to 160C.
I like to par boil my roast potatoes. until just less than cooked. Before they fall apart when shaken to fluff up.
I made leek and onion with Crème fraîche too. Sliced the leeks down the length.
And then sliced across.
Sliced the onions.
Butter in the pan.
Onions in the pan. Sweated down with the lid on.
Then added the leeks and stuck the lid back on. Added a little water to avoid it drying out. Probably should have done this later, but it worked out tasty, if not aesthetically pleasing.
Potatoes par boiled.
I bought some small cast iron roasting trays. The theory being that they would radiate the heat better and make good roast potatoes. I stuck the trays in the oven to pre heat.
Drained the par boiled potatoes, left to stand for a minute or two, and then shook with the lid over the pan to fluff up the outsides. Aiming to get them nice and crispy.
Potatoes in the trays and some broccoli – I like roast broccoli. I greased the trays with some rape seed oil. Plenty of pepper over the potatoes, and spaced out to get heat around them. Into the oven.
The breast hit 63C 10 minutes before the thigh, so the thigh is the best place to put the probe.
Once the thigh was at 63C I covered the chicken with foil and turned up the oven temp to 190C again to help the roast potatoes crisp up.
After 10 minutes, I pulled the chicken out, drained the juices into a pan and covered it with tin foil and a tea towel. After testing this, I think I’d leave it for 20 minutes in total after hitting 63C next time.
Emptied the contents of the roasting tray into the pan with the chicken juices to make the gravy.
Added a tablespoon of flour in with the gravy ingredients to help thicken it.
Added the chicken wings from the bird for a bit of extra flavour and mashed everything up with a potato masher (Jamie Oliver technique). This was over a medium heat. The flour needs to cook out, and it’s nice to get a little colour on things.
I had some chicken stock frozen in an ice cube tray from the last time I roasted a chicken.
One of the chicken stock ice cubes went into the gravy along with around 150ml boiling water. Stirred it all up and incorporated the cooking adherents from the pan.
Heated up the leeky stuff and added some Crème fraîche, salt (quite a bit…) and pepper.
After the gravy has bubbled away for a while, it gets a nicer hue (more gravy than grey).
Took the roast potatoes out of the oven along with the broccoli.
My gravy straining paraphernalia. I carved the chicken and used the bones, etc. to make some more chicken stock.
Plated up roast chicken, broccoli, roast broccoli and creamy leek and onion. Oh, and gravy. Not the most beautiful presentation, but it tasted good. Turned out to be more effort than I anticipated.
The chicken was cooked, but very slightly pink in places. I think I’ll give it an extra 10 minutes next time.
Ingredients:
1 Chicken
500g Potatoes
1 medium broccoli chopped into small fleurettes
2 leeks
4 onions
2 cloves garlic
150ml Crème fraîche
1 tablespoon plain flour
Chicken stock (cube, powder, frozen) to add to gravy
Salt, pepper
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