Chicken is a meat that you can use with pretty much any type of main dish because it is quite versatile in nature. Whether it’s part of a nice warm curry, a salad or chucked into a cold pasta based dish, chicken really is one of the tastiest meats that you can have. Aside from it being fairly easy to cook and being rather tasty, it also has many health benefits and if you eat it as part of a balanced diet you gain a lot from its high source of protein.
Today though we aren’t looking at the health benefits of chicken, instead we want to look at how you can roast the perfect chicken so that all your dinner guests will be asking you how you cooked such an amazing chicken. Therefore we are going to take your through the cooking methods for a roast chicken allowing you to follow our easy step-by-step instructions, and believe it or not it’s a lot more easier than you are probably thinking right now.
So before you start any cooking, read on…
One of the best ways to cook chicken is to roast it as you get so many different flavours from the white meat when cooked in this manner. Roasting a chicken all starts with the preparation, and once cooked thoroughly you can add this to a Sunday dinner, pasta dishes, salads and even soups.
To begin with you need to preheat your oven to a high heat setting, usually 450F is the best setting to use and then you want to use the middle of oven to cook the chicken.
Get everything ready on the kitchen side that you are going to need:
If you haven’t removed the giblets yet then this is the first thing you are going to want to do. Giblets shouldn’t just be thrown away though as they can help make gravy should you need it for your intended dish.
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Rub the outside of the chicken with some extra virgin olive oil, making sure that the drumsticks and breast are well coated in oil. What this will result in is crispy golden skin. Now you have the chicken covered season with the salt and pepper and chopped garlic (you can put the garlic cloves inside the chicken). Cut the lemon into segments and then place these inside the chicken as well, this will just add a nice subtle flavour. At the end of the cooking process you can also use the garlic to add to boiled potatoes or you can roast some potatoes with the garlic cloves to give them a great taste.
Depending on the size of the chicken will vary its cooking time, but you should be able to find instructions on the packaging. Lower the temperature to about 400F now, and then put the chicken into the roasting dish and slide that onto the middle rack of the oven.
To give you an idea of when it is cooked you can use a thermometer in the thickest part of the chicken, and if the temperature reads 165F and the juices are running clear then you are finished.
When cooked always make sure that you leave the chicken on the side for a good 15 minutes, this will allow the chicken to rest. This is the ideal time to prepare the rest of your dish (whether you need to make gravy, cook vegetables or boil up some pasta).
After the 15 minutes has passed you can now start to carve up the chicken, don’t just slam your knife in any old place. Look for the breasts, thighs, and drumsticks and carve these off first. Some people tend to like nibbling on the wings so you can twist and break these off.
You should now have a carcass in front of you but don’t stop there as you can salvage plenty of other meat from the bones, and this meat will usually keep for a good 5 days in the fridge and as long as 3 months if you put it in the freezer straight away.
Note: You don’t have to use garlic or lemons as part of the seasoning, other herbs can be used to your required taste, such as Sage which is the ideal herb of choice to combine with roasted chicken. If you want that golden bronze crispy skin then you must remember to cover the chicken in oil, but don’t worry about going overboard here as it will give it that great texture.
Last update on 2024-04-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API