Jamie Oliver's Perfect Roast Chicken

I cook chicken a LOT. I am always trying to find different recipes to get away from the same old chicken dishes. I grill chicken, saute chicken, skewer chicken, make chicken fajitas, chicken quesadillas, chicken tacos, and the list goes on and on. This summer has been so hot that I have rarely used the oven in my new kitchen to cook. Today the temperature was pretty moderate so I decided to try a roast chicken recipe. I found this one from Jamie Oliver (who I am a huge fan of) on his website, jamieoliver.com. I tweaked it slightly by using fresh rosemary from my garden and already peeled garlic cloves, but other than that I followed it pretty closely. I think it turned out fantastic! These are the photos of my meal (yes we eat early - helped me lose weight):

Before:

After:

Here is the recipe from his site:

ingredients

• 1 x approximately 1.6kg chicken, preferably free-range, organic or higher welfare 
• 2 medium onions 
• 2 carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 bulb of garlic
• olive oil 
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon 
a small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or sage, or a mixture

method

Having learnt the things I’ve learnt about chickens over the last few years, of course I’m going to suggest that you buy free-range or organic. But if you’re a little tight for cash, the RSPCA Freedom Food chickens are very good and available in all good supermarkets.

To prepare your chicken
• Take your chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven
• Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F/gas 9
• There’s no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them
• Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled
• Pile all the veg and garlic into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil
• Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the bird
• Carefully prick the lemon all over, using the tip of a sharp knife (if you have a microwave, you could pop the lemon in these for 40 seconds at this point as this will really bring out the flavour)
• Put the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity, with the bunch of herbs

To cook your chicken
• Place the chicken on top of the vegetables in the roasting tray and put it into the preheated oven
• Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook the chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes
• If you’re doing roast potatoes and veggies, this is the time to crack on with them – get them into the oven for the last 45 minutes of cooking
• Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if the veg look dry, add a splash of water to the tray to stop them burning
• When cooked, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so
• Cover it with a layer of tinfoil and a tea towel and put aside. Now is the time to make your gravy

To carve your chicken
• Remove any string from the chicken and take off the wings (break them up and add to your gravy for mega flavour)
• Carefully cut down between the leg and the breast
• Cut through the joint and pull the leg off
• Repeat on the other side, then cut each leg between the thigh and the drumstick so you end up with four portions of dark meat
• Place these on a serving platter
• You should now have a clear space to carve the rest of your chicken
• Angle the knife along the breastbone and carve one side off, then the other
• When you get down to the fussy bits, just use your fingers to pull all the meat off, and turn the chicken over to get all the tasty, juicy bits from underneath
• You should be left with a stripped carcass, and a platter full of lovely meat that you can serve with your piping hot gravy and gorgeous roast veg


• from Jamie's Ministry of Food

Homemade Chicken Ginger Eggrolls

Sliced chicken, shredded cabbage, green onion, Ginger, and carrots wrapped in egg roll wraps. About to bake for 25 mins to be ready for football kickoff.

Ingredients:
1lb of sliced chicken breast
shredded carrots
shredded cabbage
minced ginger (1Tbs)
3-5 Tbs of diced green onions
Asian Ginger Sauce
Egg Roll Wrappers

Cook chicken in wok or large skillet on high with about 2-4 Tbs of vegetable oil. When chicken turns white (2-4 mins) add a few splashes of the ginger sauce, sliced cabbage, carrots, ginger, and green onion. Once the cabbage wilts (2 mins or so) remove all ingredients to a bowl.

Spoon the mixture into the egg roll wrappers and fold accordingly. I actually put mine into the fridge until it was close to game time. Brush a very small amount of sesame oil or a little veggie oil on the outside of the rolls and then bake at 350 until golden brown. Serve with duck sauce or some ginger sauce and enjoy!

Beer Can Chicken

I just can't stay away

The Chef at Work

A perfect night for beer-can chicken

Beer Can Chicken

Ready to carve and grub.

Louisiana Cajun Bean and Chicken Soup

Louisiana Cajun Bean and chicken soup. I buy whole chickens now when we BBQ and I cut off the meat first to cook - cheaper and fresher - I keep the rest of the bird in the freezer, so I cooked 3 birds this morn to make the chicken stock for the soup and took off all the meat when it was done. I used a bean assortment and spice packet for this soup and it looks and smells amazing.