It’s time for part two of the roast dinner playlist and this time, it’s roast chicken with homemade sage & onion stuffing, gravy and amazing roast potatoes! If you missed the first video in the series you can click here to see roast beef & yorkshire puddings! This is a really fun recipe to make and if you get your timings right you can smash it out of the park! Lets get to it…
Roast chicken
Super simple! Make sure the chicken is at room temperature, get a good free range chicken if you can afford to. You can do so much to a chicken, even ramming flavour under the skin. We will concentrate our flavour on the inside and the juices that make the gravy! Remove the string from the chicken and open the legs to get to the cavity, in here put an onion, in 2 halves, some garlic cloves (unpeeled), 2 lemon halves, and some peel from the lemon loose, the rosemary and the bay leaves. It should all fit in there nicely. Don’t worry if not, you don’t have to tuck the legs back in or tie it with string.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at the following temperature depending on the size of the chicken.
If the chicken starts to go too brown too quickly, cover it with foil and keep baking. Around 2 or 3 times during the bake, remove from the oven and baste the chicken in order to help keep it moist. Carefully spoon any juices from the chicken at the bottom of the pan onto the top of the chicken. You will know when the chicken is done when the juices run clear if you slice into the fattest breast area or thigh. Remove the chicken from the pan and into another one, cover with foil but not too tightly, and leave to rest for 25-30 mins whilst you make the gravy. Cut up and serve!
Chicken Gravy
Very simple, put the pan and with the juices that the chicken was in onto a hob and add the flour. Mix with a wooden spoon to form a paste as you heat it, scraping up any cooked chicken bits in the pan. Add the water and stock cube and stir, bring to a gentle simmer, then pass through a sieve into a jug. Reheat if you wish to when ready to serve. As it cools, once you sieve it, if you see a considerable amount of fat (it will be a visible line) you can get this out with a ladle or use a fat separator if you have one.
Roast Potatoes
These are to die for! I’m using duck fat, but that’s not important, you can still get amazing results from vegetable oil or sunflower oil. First get your potatoes peeled and cut even in size, put into a large saucepan and fill with water to cover the potatoes. Warm on a medium heat with the lid on until it reaches boiling point. Once there, remove the lid and turn down to a simmer for 5-7 minutes. Drain off.
Put the lid back on the pan and gently shake up the potatoes, this will fluff them to help with crispyness but don’t overdo it or you’ll end up with mash potatoes!
Warm the duck fat in a roasting tray in the oven until it’s hot and transparent. If using other fats or oils, again put them in the oven with your roast and warm up. Put the potatoes into the pan and cover fully in the oil rotating around evenly. Bake for 45mins turning a couple of times or until golden brown all over, season with a little sprinkle of salt if you wish! It’s best to start the roast just before your meat is done so they can cook while the meat is resting.
Sage & Onion Stuffing
Chop the onions to your desired size, diced would work but a little bigger is also nice to make it chunky! Place the onions in a pan with water and bring to a boil, simmering for 15 minutes. Drain off and place in a bowl to cool down.
Whizz up the bread into fresh breadcrumbs in a food processor, pour into a bowl, add the cooled onions, melted butter, herbs and season. Mix together and it should form clumps as you go. Push this into a lightly greased 20cm baking dish and spread it around, do not squish it into place let it settle as if you press down it’ll turn very flat! Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at the same temperature as your roast potatoes and remove once lightly toasted on top! This is super delicious!
Conclusion
Serve up with vegetables of your choice – simple boiled stuff like carrots and cabbage worked for me! I’ll show you some other side dishes in the next few videos to try out and mix / match. Enjoy and let me know how you get on!