Simple Rosemary Garlic Roast Chicken and to die-for sauce!

I wrote a recipe for roast chicken many years ago and realised how much I have grown in terms of skills. Maybe credit to lots of Masterchef and Top Chef shows as well as Youtube recipe channels! Nevertheless, I am happy to see myself learning more simple yet useful techniques in my cooking and one of them is to make your own sauce for the roast chicken! So be prepared because you are in for a tasty treat!

By the way, you can omit marinating the butter with rosemary and garlic and just keep it simple with butter, salt and black pepper on chicken. Up to you!

Ingredients
- Chicken of course!
- butter
- rosemary
- Garlic (Mashed)
- salt
- black pepper
- root veggies (e.g celery, carrot, potatoes-I used baby potatoes so that the skin is intact. Personal preference)
- one onion
- half or one chicken stock cube
- thyme
- bay leaves

Set your oven to 200 degrees C and start boiling a pot of water for stock base for your sauce.

Steps
1) Cut up your root veggies and onion and place them in your roasting pan as a bed for your chicken to rest later. Spread them out. You can just sprinkle a little salt if you like. Also add the sticks of thyme on top and bay leaves. Keep the ends of the onions (including the skins) as well as the skins and ends of the carrots !!
2) Place all the veggie trimmings to a  pot of boiling water..maybe about 1/2 to 3/4 full of water. Then when boiling, you can place the stock cube in.
3) Chopped up fresh rosemary leaves. Kept the stem and throw them into the boiling water too!
4) Mashed the garlic with my garlic presser
5) Mix the chopped up rosemary leaves and garlic to soft butter. Add olive oil and mix it so that it will look like paste.
6) Then, spread the butter paste to the chicken..covering every part including inside the cavity and under the skin.
7) Add salt and black pepper to chicken.
(Point 4 and 5 is my least favourite part because my hands get really gross and oily. Haha)
8) Then place the chicken on top of the veggies in your roasting pan.
9) Place the pan into the oven for about 80 mins, depending on size of chicken.
10) When it is done, you can take it out and test it by inserting a knife thick part close to bone to see if the juice runs out if clear or red
11) Remove the nice veggies for eating later.
12) Put chicken on plate and cover it with foil. Leave it to rest.
13) Then take the roasting pan and put it over the fire. Add plain flour and stir with the juices of the chicken.
14) Throw in the whole pot of vegetable trimming, stock cube water into the roasting pan and let it boil. Keep stirring so that the juices can all mix together. Use a masher to mash down the bits and pieces. I actually added broad beans to my vegetable stock pot so that when I mash it, it gives a nice thick texture too. But its up to you. You can leave some carrots, potatoes and celery from the roasting pan to contribute to the sauce so that you can mash them down into the roasting pan for the sauce. Whatever it is, make sure you have stuff to mash down into to create more body.

What was inside my roasting pan-carrot and onion trimmings, rosemary sticks, broad beans, onions from the roast

15) Sieve the sauce out back into the pot and just let it simmer to keep it hot before serving.
16) Finally, break down the chicken into wings, thighs, breast meat and serve with sauce among your vegetables.

My family commented that Christmas has arrived and we all starting, "We wish you a Merry Christmas.."

That's what I love about homecooked food...when family comes together and just have a good meal and laugh around the table!

PS: by the way, my children ended up soaking their whole plates with the sauce because it is so yummy!

Hope you enjoy this!

Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Roast Chicken

I have always been blown away by the works of Heston Blumenthal since watching Masterchef Australia. Heston is an English Celebrity Chef who owns a three Michelin-starred restaurant. It is always a multi-sensory experience when eating his dishes.

I was especially blown away when he created this Edible Garden in the last season of  Masterchef Australia and got the competitors to replicate his work.

Its not only a piece of art but everything in this garden is all edible!! Yes, believe it or not. What is amazing about Heston's work is that he plays with your mind. Your brain is telling you that you are eating dirt/soil which is actually made from black olives and the rocks are actually potatoes.

So anyway, I hope you are as blown away at this guy's talent as me now!

I found this video by Heston which I thought I would like to share with you in making the perfect, juicy roast chicken!

Enjoy! I will definitely be trying this soon!

 

Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

This dish is similar to a one pot meal as you simply put the ingredients together in roasting pan and throw it in the oven to do the cooking. So its easy and enjoyable for the whole family to dig in.

Ingredients (for 4)

- 1 whole chicken

- 2 sticks of butter

- 3 carrots

- one box of button mushrooms, cut in half

- 4-5 potatoes, cut in half

- dried rosemary

- dried thyme

- salt and pepper for seasoning

- chicken stock

- corn

- Optional: Zucchini, sliced

Steps

1) Preheat the oven to 240 degrees celcius

2) Wash the chicken thoroughly, especially inside the cavity area

3) Sprinkle salt and pepper generously on the chicken. Massage it. Add dried rosemary and thyme as well.

4) Rub one stick of butter all over the chicken, evenly coating it.

5) Cut up the vegetables. Roughly chopped. For the potatoes, you can also put in the oven together with the rest of the veggies. But I prefer my potatoes mashed. So I cooked them in boiling water and mash them with butter as a side. So, you see which you prefer. To oven cook it or mash it.

6) Put the chicken and cut up vegetables in the roasting pan. Distribute remaining butter evenly on top of the vegetables. When placing the chicken, place it on top of the vegetables.

7) Finally, I use about 3 cups of chicken stock and pour it into my large roasting pan so that the moisture can help cook the vegetables and make my chicken meat moist.

8) Then, put the roasting pan into the preheated oven. Once you put in. I turn it down to 200 degrees celcius. Put on the timer for about 30 mins for me to check on it. It should take about 30-45 mins depending on how big is your chicken and how crispy and dark colour you want your chicken to be.

This is the final outcome!

My children all helped in the cutting of vegetables and marinating of chicken. So it was a sense of accomplishment for them to see their effort on the table!

Here's my dinner plate. Added mashed potatoes topped with sour cream and spring onions (chives).

Everyone enjoyed it so much that there was no leftovers at all!