When I said on Instagram that I was going to be writing newsletters again and asked people what they wanted me to write about, overwhelmingly people said “food”.
It’s nice to know that people miss my food blogging days, because I miss my food blogging days. I miss having the time, headspace and disposable income to lock myself in my tiny kitchen and fuck around for a bit, following my greed and making up new recipes. I miss posting the recipes online so that other people could make them, too, and them telling me about how much they and their families had enjoyed the thing I made up in my head. I miss that specific feeling of giving people I love food that I made just for them, and seeing them enjoy it - one of my favourite memories of my actual wedding day is making my bridesmaids orange and chocolate brioche bread-and-pudding French toast for breakfast. For a good few years my whole life was food, and I thrived on it.
Even though I can’t do it as much, I still love cooking. I love following my ever-present greed. I love making up new recipes. I love feeding the people I care about. And, when I need it, there’s something very soothing about making a meal I’ve made hundreds of times before, my hands carrying out the ritual of chopping and stirring and frying almost on autopilot while my head and my heart switch off for a moment.
On the weekend, at home on a Sunday for the first time in months, I roasted a chicken. I roast a damn good chicken. It’s never dry or rubbery: the meat is soft and juicy, pulling away easily from the bone, and the skin is crispy and flavourful. And alongside it, I make a damn good set of sides: rich and creamy cauliflower cheese with a hint of mustard powder; mashed potato with an egg yolk and chives stirred through to make it rich and tasty; broccoli grilled in lemon and garlic to cut through the heaviness of the potato and cauliflower cheese.
And then, the next day, there’s a richness of leftovers: wraps, curries, chillis, risottos, soups, pasta, bento bowls, burritos, or even just eaten cold as you’re doing the washing up, picked straight from the bone, the meat soft and tender in your mouth and the juices running down your chin. A well-roasted chicken is a gift, and can keep a greedy belly happy for days if you’re smart about it.
Here is my very, very base roast chicken recipe, and afterwards here are some adaptations I do depending on what sounds good that day.
How to roast a chicken in the most basic way possible
Take the chicken out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you’re going to put it in the oven
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C/Gas Mark 6
Sit the chicken in a roasting tin, breast-side up. Drizzle with oil, crumble over salt and grind over pepper, and rub all over the chicken. Then flip the chicken over until it’s breast-side down, and do the same
Take a large lemon and cut it into fat wedges. Squeeze the pointy bits of the lemon wedges together slightly so the juice squirts out a bit. Poke these wedges into the empty cavity inside the chicken, trying to make sure the lemon wedges go down the entire length of the bird
You need to roast the chicken for 45 minutes per kg, plus 20 minutes extra. There’s a roast calculator here that’s useful. However long you need to cook it for, after 45 minutes in the oven you should flip the chicken over so it’s breast-side up for the remaining cooking time. Doing it upside-down at first ensure the juices don’t drain entirely out of the chicken while it’s cooking, but you want to crisp up the skin still
Always check that your chicken is cooked by poking it in the thigh with a sharp knife, catching the juices in a spoon and making sure they’re clear
When cooked, take the chicken out of the oven and cover with foil and a tea towel for 15 minutes, until you’re ready to serve
Carving, you’re on your own, I’ve got no fucking idea.
Variations
I put all sorts of crap on top of my chicken. This Sunday I added garlic oil and dried thyme. Generic Italian herbs always taste good. Tarragon is nice. Whatever you want. Follow your greed
I use oil here for the skin, but you don’t have to. Sometimes I’ll make either a herbed butter (finely chopped fresh herbs like tarragon, thyme, rosemary stirred into butter) or a garlic butter (use the fine part of the cheese grater, grate a few cloves of garlic and whip the butter with it). Then I loosen the skin from the bird and press the flavourful butter underneath it. It melts into the meat but keeps the skin crispy and lovely
I don’t just put a lemon inside the chicken. This week, I had some extra garlic cloves, so I crushed them up and stuck them in too. Previously, when I was making a roast chicken to go with cold potato salad and more salad-y sides in summer, I’ve used an orange instead. What have you got leftover? What tastes nice with chicken and the rest of your meal? Chuck it in. Why not?
I also often, if I have it, make a bed for the chicken of things like onions wedges, carrot chunks, sliced leeks. The flavour of the vegetables permeates the chicken, and then the chicken fat seeps out and coats/cooks the vegetables. I take out and serve any that look appetising; for the rest, when the chicken is resting I pour boiling water into the pan, scrape the bottom and mix it all the roasted vegetables, and then strain the liquid to get a base for the gravy
Or, as I did last Sunday, sometimes I just chuck in some extra lemon wedges and some smashed garlic cloves to nestle around the bird. It really depends what I can be arsed with
If you’re very worried about a dry chicken, add a few cm of liquid (stock, wine, water) to the bottom of the roasting tin and cover it with foil before you put it in the oven. Take the foil off when you flip the chicken to crisp up the skin
Things to do with leftover roast chicken
Make a chicken stock and use that stock to make a risotto with the leftover meat
Pie. I like this Jamie Oliver one for using up leftover turkey but honestly it works with chicken too
Burritos or wraps
Any kind of curry you like. I like this one
I’ll stop now, because I’ve typed the word “chicken” so much it’s lost all meaning. It was nice to write about food again for a bit. I hope you’re all doing well.
Love, Amy x
I love roast chicken. I don't do anything special with it, just salt and pepper and luckily for me, my husband won't eat the skin! Weirdo! I will eat it all. The rest goes into chicken sandwiches for him and chicken stir fry or salad for me. The most giving roast meal in existence!