It’s still winters in some parts
of the country, though it came in quite late in Kolkata this time. But hey, you
always have an excuse for some warm comfort food, don’t you? Yes I am talking
about my go to comfort food when I am not in a mood to do a lot of things for
dinner. You can never really get tired of some the wholesome Roast Chicken. I
cannot for sure.
It doesn’t take too much effort,
you put it in the oven and just forget about it. Now, there are many ways you
can make a roast. It appears in a lot of cuisines in their own style. There are
Indian Roast Chicken versions too. The one I am going to share today though is
an English recipe. In fact this is what usually we had when I was a kid. My dad
stayed in England for several years so classic British recipes are a regular at
our household.
But this is not my dad’s recipe I
have made some modifications to the original one.
All that you need:
- Whole chicken with skin - 1
- Small potatoes with skin – 4 cut in halves
- Lemon – 1/2
- Ginger Garlic paste – 2 teaspoon
- Red Onion – 3 small whole onions, half an onion in thick slices and half an onion for stuffing
- Garlic – 10 cloves
- Butter – 50g at room temperature
- Dried herbs (Thyme + Oregano) – 2 teaspoon
- Olive oil – 2 teaspoon
- Seasoning – to taste
- Thread to tie the legs
Let’s get started
- Pre-heat oven at 220° C
- Mix the dried herbs on to butter to
make herbed butter
- Rub ginger garlic paste on the
chicken and keep aside
- Place potato, cloves of garlic,
onions on your baking tray, drizzle some olive oil, salt and pepper over them
and mix.
- Push the veg on the sides to make
way for the chicken
- Place the sliced onions in the
middle.
- Rub the chicken with the herbed
butter all across.
- Pull the skin near the breast and
insert two blobs of this herbed butter.
This will give you an extremely
juicy chicken breast after roasting.
- Stuff the cavity with half a
lemon, half an onion and few garlic cloves.
- Tie the legs together so that the
stuffing doesn’t come out easily.
- Place the bird on the sliced
onions.
There’s a science on the
placement of the chicken. When you are placing the chicken on the onion slices
it allows the hot air to circulate better, cooking the bird well from underneath
as well.
Sprinkle seasoning across. And
poke the bird with a fork at places.
Roast the bird at 220° C for 45
mins
Serve hot with bread.
 |
| The same recipe during one of our Christmas Lunch |
