Heston’s Roast Chicken
Heston’s Roast Chicken
When I first saw it on cable TV, I thought at first that this guy must be nuts. He did look like a nutty professor as well and who would have thought that he really has some good ideas up his sleeves.
Roast chicken, one of the toughest dishes to master. The roast chickens that I have had so far were all either roasted too dry or too hard. Some roasted chickens were so over roasted that they taste like rock cakes (over burnt cakes).
Heston promised to change all that forever. But there’s a price to pay – and that’s the price of patience. Coupled with that an insane obsession with perfection. Intermingle those qualities together and you would soon find yourself chowing down some really delicious roast chicken.
How I know? I tried it. And it works. The best part is, the juices in the chicken just oozes as you cut through the meat. The breast meat juicy as ever.
Recipe – serving for 4
Ingredients
Whole fresh chicken 1.5kg
Thyme 6-7 sprigs
Butter 80 grams
Lemon
Sea salt
Red wine 1 cup
Method
1. Douse the chicken in salt water solution overnight in a container. 60 grams of salt to a litre of water. Simple as that. Doing this boost the moisture in the chicken.
2. When ready to roast, pad dry the chicken, and rub butter all over the bird, giving it a good massage. You generally want to make sure the chicken is “relaxed” while you roast the bird.
3. Add thyme into the anal cavity of the chicken and wedge a lemon (halved) into it as well. Then preheat the oven to a temperature of 90 degrees for about 10 minutes. I chose fan mode with top heating.
4. Roast the chicken for about 1.5 hours at 90 degrees breast facing upwards. Remember not to tight the legs of the chicken but rather allow it to all hang out.
5. There should be no flavor lost and the chicken after roasting should also look pale and relatively uncooked in a way. But with a kitchen thermometer you can test to see if the chicken is cooked at 90 degrees.
6. Let the chicken rest for another 45 minutes before rubbing the chicken with another layer of butter. Doing so will enhance the flavor of the chicken and allow it to brown.
7. Once ready, preheat the oven to a maximum temperature of 260 degrees. And roast the chicken for about 15 minutes. The skin of the chicken should be crispy and slightly brown.
8. Deglaze the bottom of the roasting pan and turn it into a sauce for the roast chicken.
Bon Appetit!