Roast chicken is one of those dishes that just about anyone will enjoy. To start, chicken is usually the favorite of the little ones. And if roasted in the oven, the skin becomes crispy. So when you serve it with potatoes, it’s everyone’s favorite dish! Making a good roasted chicken, however, requires some attention: It’s not enough to just put it in a pan or forget it in the oven. In doing so, you risk burning the skin and ending up with a dry, rubbery meat (that’s practically inedible). The perfect roast chicken should feature a soft and succulently tender meat, covered with a fragrant, golden-hued crust. If you want, you can roast it in the same pan as the new potatoes with a drizzle of oil, stirring and rotating the ingredients from time to time to cook everything evenly. This will make the dish even more appetizing!
Selecting the chicken meat
Since roast chicken is a dish with simple and not-so-elaborate flavors, the selection of chicken meat is fundamental. The best option would be to find a chicken raised in the open air, free to graze and fed with excellent quality feed –farmhouse free-range chickens, to be more specific. Living in the city, however, makes it difficult to find a proper free-range chicken. So – contact your trusted butcher and ask for a recommendation on the best products in the area with quality certifications. If you don’t have a butcher nearby, you can also select the organic options available at the supermarket.
Can you eat the skin?
It is undoubtedly the tastiest part of the dish, but it always creates a sort of guilt complex for fear that it’s too oily and bad for your health. In fact, the skin of a chicken, if well cooked, loses most of its fat, becoming a dry, crunchy crust. It all depends on the amount of seasoning used to cook the chicken: If you cook it in a sea of oil, the skin will also absorb most of it, becoming greasy and undigestible. If, on the contrary, you use a cooking method that allows for a result closer to the chicken cooked on a spit, without extra added fat, then you can enjoy it without hesitation.
The 5 mistakes to avoid with roast chicken
Skipping the de-pluming step
The skin of the chicken must be cleaned very well if you plan on eating it: Before roasting, hold the chicken over an open flame to remove any remaining feathers on the skin.
Not cutting off the ends of the wings (the thinnest part)
If you leave the ends of the wings on the chicken, it will burn, giving an unpleasant taste to the whole chicken.
Skipping prep before roasting
The raw chicken should be massaged with salt, pepper and minced spices to soften the meat and season it. Sprinkle the surface of your chicken with fine salt, pepper and chopped sage, rosemary and thyme and massage well, so that all the flavorings penetrate the meat. If you want, you can also add a little chopped meat inside the chicken.
Roasting the chicken in too much seasoning
It is often thought that a roast chicken has to navigate a sea of oil to be successful. Instead, the best way get a crispy skin with tender meat is to place it on a baking sheet over a wire rack so that the bottom of the chicken is not in contact with the bottom of the pan. In this way, the skin will cook well on all sides, making for a crispy crust and tender meat that is light and easy to digest.
Cooking the meat for too long or too little
Ruining roast chicken is a piece of cake: A few minutes too many and say goodbye to the perfect roast chicken. Every moment is crucial for the success of the dish. To avoid making mistakes, calculate 60 minutes for each kg of meat in a static oven, at 390°F (200°C).