FRENCH
ROTISSERIE CHICKEN AT HOME
- Timescale Weekend Project
- Serves 4
- Difficulty Moderate
During the warmer months, our favourite butcher set up a rotisserie outside the front of their store selling the most incredible rotisserie chicken and potatoes.
So it was to our considerable excitement when we discovered that we could recreate something very similar without the aid of a rotisserie.
By skewering the whole chicken and suspending the bird above a deep roasting tray or casserole dish, you allow for plenty of air circulation and even cooking. Better still, the skewers allow you to rotate the bird, turning it over every 30 minutes, mimicking the turning rotisserie. Best of all though, that deep casserole dish proves the perfect vessel to hold a bed of potatoes, eagerly catching all those glorious juices from the chicken whilst roasting to crisp perfection.
It’s a reasonably lengthy process, three hours or so when all said and done and the rotating can be a little fiddly. The results however, are something truly special.
Ingredients
CHICKEN
1 Chicken, about 1.75g
1 Lemon,
2 Garlic Cloves, bashed
THE FLAVOURED BUTTER
50g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2 tsp. Paprika,
1 tsp. Smoked Hot Paprika,
¼ tsp. Cayenne Pepper,
1 tsp Herbes de Provence,
Generous Pinch of Salt and Pepper
POTATOES
500g Maris Piper Potatoes or similar, cut into wedges
1 Small Bunch of Thyme,
Pinch of Salt and Pepper,
TO COOK
Olive Oil
TO SERVE
Green Salad
METHOD
THE FLAVOURED BUTTER
- Place all the ingredients for the flavoured butter into a bowl and mix together until fully incorporated.
THE CHICKEN
- Remove the chicken from the fridge about 30 minutes before you wish to start roasting it.
- Preheat the oven to 130ºC (FAN).
- Slice the lemon in half and place into the cavity of the chicken along with the garlic cloves. Smother the flavoured butter all over the chicken. Pierce the chicken with 3-4 metal skewers through the sides of the chicken.
- Place the potato wedges into a large, deep-sided roasting tray or dutch oven. Drizzle with olive oil and add the thyme leaves. Carefully lay the chicken over the pan, resting on the metal skewers, so that the chicken is suspended over the potatoes without touching them.
- Place into the oven and roast for 2 ½ hours. Every half hour, turn the chicken over, this will help to replicate the rotation of the rotisserie. You may want to stir the potatoes occasionally as well.
- Once the skin is a deep golden brown and crisp and the internal temperature has reached 75Cº in the thickest part of the breast, remove from the oven. Allow the chicken to rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.
TIP – Do not forgo the resting period! Resting your chicken allows the meat to relax and will ensure the chicken retains much of its moisture once you start carving.
- Serve with the potatoes and a green salad.
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