How can you not drool with envy over a beautiful roast chicken? 🤤 That good smell coming out of the oven and reminding us of family meals at grandma and grandpa’s house… But before you can taste it, you have to know how to prepare it. Do you know the techniques to apply to be sure to prepare a golden brown and crispy roast chicken? Follow the guide! 🍗
The recipe for roast chicken
Let’s start at the beginning. The basic recipe for roast chicken! Frigo Magic version:
- Take the chicken out at room temperature.
- Preheat your oven to 240°C (Th. 8).
- Take 4 shallots, peel them and cut them in 4.
- Peel and cut 2 carrots into large slices.
- Stuff the chicken with salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon of garlic semolina, thyme and herbes de Provence.
- Arrange the vegetables with 5 cloves of garlic in a dish and place the chicken on top.
- Brush it with 2 knobs of butter, salt and pepper.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 200°C.
- Bake for another 30 minutes, basting regularly with a little water at first, then with the cooking juices.
- Turn off the oven and cover the chicken with aluminum foil.
- Let stand for 10 minutes in the oven, leaving the door ajar.
- Cut up the chicken, adjusting the seasoning if necessary.
These cooking times are for a chicken that weighs between 1.2kg and 1.4kg.
💡 Chef’s Tip
To know if the meat is well done, poke it with a knife and look at the color of the juices that come out. If the juice is clear, it’s good. If you see blood, the chicken is undercooked.
Techniques for successful roast chicken
Is your chicken too dry? It lacks juiciness, softness and crispness? Maybe you haven’t applied these tips:
➡️ Remember to wipe it down
If it has been left out in the cold, your chicken may have accumulated water on its skin. If so, pat it dry with a paper towel.
➡️ A nicely browned chicken
To keep your roast chicken golden brown, remember to baste it with sparkling water during cooking!
➡️ To make it crisp
Brush your bird with melted butter or oil, the fat will give it a crispness and give a nice roast juice! 😋 And for even more crispness, sprinkle with a thin layer of flour.
➡️ Cooking juice
Don’t forget to baste it regularly with its cooking juices to keep it soft!
➡️ Lemon slices
If you really want your meat to be as moist as possible, place lemon slices in the stuffing of your chicken.
➡️ Turn it around
Just like in the rotisserie, but without the spit… you have to turn the chicken well so that each side can brown.
➡️ Cooking time
The cooking time must be adapted to the weight of the bird. In general, count 1 hour per kilo:
- 1 kg: 1 hour
- 1,5 kg : 1 hour and a half
- 2 kg : 2 hours
➡️ Mastering cutting
First, the material: you will need a cutting board, 1 fork, and 1 good knife. For the continuation, we leave you with this video:
How to choose your chicken
It is obviously the ABC of a successful roast chicken! We explain how to choose it.
The first advice is to avoid buying industrial chickens, also called “classic” or “standard”. They are certainly less expensive, but also of a lesser quality. They were raised in battery cages (one on top of the other) and were slaughtered after only 50 days of breeding. Prefer organic, AOC chickens that have been raised in the open air.
Prefer the label “Label rouge fermier” which certifies that the chicken has been raised in the open air for a minimum of 81 days and that it has been fed with 80% cereals.
AOC chickens – Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée – are fed with high quality seeds, and also live 81 days.
Of course, you should also go local by choosing an animal raised in France, preferably in your region. By choosing French poultry, you can be sure that health standards have been met.
To be sure of the method of breeding your poultry, domestic breeding is ideal. But if not, you can settle for a grain-fed chicken from a farmer or butcher. Make sure it is fed with at least 75% grain.
At Frigo Magic, we support Poulet de Janzé, who raise chickens fed without GMO, in the open air, and with the red label!
To sum up, for a good roasted chicken, we prefer a farm chicken, raised in the open air, fed without GMO and labeled or organic.
Can you smell the goodness of roast chicken wafting into the room? Which of these recipes are you most excited about? Tell us in the comments ⬇️ We’re already salivating over them… 🤤 Your turn! 🍗
Don’t miss any more,
download the Frigo Magic application!
