Sunday 14 March 2010

Sunday Roast


This is a classic British meal served on Sunday for lunch. It's normally consist of a type of roast meat (chicken, pork, lamb, beef) and served with roast potato, with sides of yorkshire pudding, vegetables, stuffing and good gravy.
I wouldn't say NO to this classic meal anyday of the week, imagine the flavorsome chicken with it's delicious crispy skin plus the perfect golden and crispy roast potato......you've got the idea.
My British friend always invited me over for lovely roast dinner, am gosh their roast potato is to die for. So I learnt a bit of skill from them on how to create that lovely roast potato and for the chicken-the oven will do justice for me I hope. :-)
So I thought, I will experiment with this classic dish, off to supermarket to get a medium size free range chicken (1.5kgs), king edward potatoes and some vegetables.



Roast chicken with roast potato
Ingredients (serve 4)
  • 1 whole free range chicken
  • some sea salt
  • Rosemary sprigs
  • 2 carrots-diced
  • 1 medium onion-diced
  • 4 large King Edward potatoes-cut into 6 for each potatoes
  • 100 ml sunflower oil (if you prefer, you can do with 50ml sunflower oil+50ml goose fat)
  1. Preheat the oven to 190C.
  2. Clean the chicken and pat dry. Stuffed the chicken cavity with carrots, onion and one sprigs of rosemary. Use a toothpick to seal up the bottom. Rub with sea salt on the skin and top with some rosemary sprigs. Place on a roasting tin.
  3. Pour the oil into another roasting tin. Put the tin into the oven. Also put the chicken roasting tin into the oven as well. Let it roast for 20minutes at 190C.
  4. Put the potato into a pot with lid and parboil for 10minutes. Off the heat. Drained. Pour it back into the pot and close the lid and let itself steam for another 10minutes or so to loose some moisture, the potato should look slightly soft and fluffy.
  5. Take out the oil roasting tin, place the potato into the tin, it should be bubbling away. Use a spoon to scoop up some oil to baste the potato. Place the tin back into the oven.
  6. Turn the oven heat to 160C now. This will ensure the slow cook process of the chicken and retain it's moisture.
  7. Baste the potato every 30minutes. The chicken should be cook after 1.5hrs.
  8. By the time the chicken cook, the potato will be have acquire a golden brown skin. Remove the potato and drained with paper towel.
  9. Place the chicken onto a big serving plate, carved and served with the roast potato and onion gravy. The vegetables in the cavity will taste absolutely gorgeous too.
There you go, Sunday lunch sorted out. :-)
That's a real good roast chicken and successful roast potato too. Yummy.

And here carpet of crocuses along The Backs in Cambridge, and couldn't resist my Pashley against the backdrop of crocuses. Ahhhh....... it's Spring :-)


9 comments:

Algernond said...

Can't emphasise the basting of the potatoes enough.. is absolutely critical for the potatoes to be crispy....

adel said...

the potatoes look so gorgeous!

Christine Toh said...

Alge,

Indeed, got to learn from the "Guru" . :-)

Christine Toh said...

Hi Adel,

Thank you, thank you. The crispiness of the outer layer and fluffiness of the inside is what I call perfect roast potato. :-)

Ann said...

whole chicken + the potatoes for one person ?

Algernond said...

Ann - surely you know Christine's appetite.....

Christine Toh said...

Ann & Alge,

Don't assume :-) .

Ann said...

Hmm...wonder who else at that roast. What do you think, Alger? :)

Christine Toh said...

Ann,

You must have guess, it could be rolly poly? :-)