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How to cook a Whole Chicken

  • 40 mins
  • easy
jeff baker
Recipe by
Jeff Baker

Ingredients

  • whole chicken
  • salt
  • onion
  • carrot
  • celery
  • bay leaf
  • sprig of thyme
  • black peppercorns
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Method

  1. Remember to remove your bird out of the packaging, pat dry and bring to room temperature.
  2. Preheat your oven to 210°C for fan assisted or 220°C for ovens without a fan.
  3. Choose a large, heavy based roasting tray, ideally with deep sides and handles for easy movement.
  4. Massage a little softened butter under the skin of the bird then season with good quality fine sea Salt.
  5. Make a trivet by roughly chopping equal amounts of onion, carrot and celery (or our preferred choice of celeriac, the root of the celery) plus a bay leaf, sprig of thyme and a few black peppercorns. Another nice addition can be a lemon cut in half and placed inside the birds cavity.
  6. Place the bird breast side up onto the trivet which should line the base of the tray.
  7. Place in the centre of oven and roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 165°C fan assisted or 175°C for ovens without a fan. Continue roasting for 20 minutes per 500g reaching a core temperature of minimum 75°C.
  8. Remove from the oven, put onto a clean tray and keep warm by covering with a sheet of tin foil. Rest for a minimum of 20 minutes before carving, leaving the roasted vegetables in the tray for the gravy.
  9. For the gravy, make up 500ml of Essential Cuisine chicken stock, then deglaze roasting tray with this stock stirring in all the caramelized juices from the tray. Next, pass through a fine sieve pushing all the juices from the vegetables into a clean saucepan. Bring to a simmer and thicken if required by whisking in a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a little cold water and reduce till you reach a rich, glossy gravy.

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