This is perfect if you are a family of opposites – think perfect crackly skin and brown meat that literally falls off the bones combined with the tastiest white meat for those (admittedly crazy) people who will only eat chicken breast and won’t touch any of that “yucky brown stuff”. The breasts cook submerged in milk, herbs and vegetables which keeps them incredibly tender and whiter than white, even if you drastically overdo the cooking time – no gummy dryness here. The upturned bird’s topside gets brown and crispy enough to satisfy the most militant skin-lover. Plus there’s a secret bonus: lemon in the milk separates the sauce and browns up in the oven, giving the savoury equivalent of the skin on a rice pudding (again, some mad people hate it. More for the rest of us.) Curds – horrible name, glorious taste.
Try it one Sunday lunchtime – I may not cook a roast chicken another way ever again.
UPDATE: Makes the best roast chicken and mayo sarnies EVER.
Also: how about that cooking sauce reduced down a little and tossed with toasted pinenuts and raisins with tagliatelle? How ’bout that?
Tenderest, tastiest roast chicken
Adapted from Jamie Oliver
- A smallish whole chicken – one that fits fairly tightly in an ovenproof, reasonably deep casserole or saucepan
- Full fat milk – depends on your pot, but at least a litre
- A big handful of sage leaves
- 2 bay leaves
- A white onion
- Zest of one lemon
- Olive oil and a knob of butter
Preheat the oven to 190˚C, making sure to have a solid surface to put the casserole on lined with foil to catch any drips. Meanwhile find an ovenproof casserole that fits the chicken quite snugly when lying down. Fill it about half full with milk – basically when the chicken is in there, you want the top half of skin to be exposed above the level of the milk so it keeps nice and crispy. Peel and quarter the onion and add that to the milk too, along with the sage, lemon zest, bay leaves, a good grinding of pepper (or some whole peppercorns) and a fat pinch of salt. Bring to the boil (but careful, it will froth up) while you brown the chicken.
In a large frying pan, heat a good glug of olive oil and the knob of butter, and brown the chicken’s skin well. (I would just do the non-breast side, as the breast side will go face down into the pan, so there isn’t much point crisping it up, but y’know, do what you feel.)
When both the oven and the milk mixture are hot, carefully lower in the browned chicken breast-side down (discarding the cooking fat). The top skin should be poking out of the milk. Place in the oven and cook uncovered for an hour and half. The milk mixture will froth up but also reduce down – the foil layer underneath the casserole you prepared earlier will stop you worrying about any eventual spills though, so pour that glass of wine.
At the end of the cooking time, the meat will be super tender and falling off the bone. Bring the casserole out of the oven and – if you’ve been using a pan that normally goes on the stovetop – pad the handles with teatowels, otherwise you’ll forget that it’s been in the oven and grasp the boiling hot handles. Hoick out the chicken onto a plate, keeping that crispy skin uppermost. Let it rest for 10 minutes – cook some green veg in the meantime – and when it’s cooled off enough, start to pull the meat off the bones with two forks or your fingers. Save that crispy skin before turning the bird over and – voila! – the whitest, tenderest meat you’ve ever eaten. Oh, and don’t forget those glorious curds. Tuck in.
