Garlic and Herb Roast Chicken
A classical Sunday roast chicken with a twist. Stuffed into the breast and thighs is a delicious garlic and herb butter that makes the chicken so juicy it's incredible.
Equipment
- 1 Roasting tray or dish
- 1 Strong pair of kitchen scissors/shears
- 1 digital thermometer
Ingredients
Garlic and Herb Butter
- 100 grams /3.5 oz salted butter softened at room temp
- 4-5 cloves of garlic grated on microplane or finely minced
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried parsley
Chicken
- 1 large free range chicken approx. 2kg/4 pounds
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 200 ℃/395 ℉. Place a shelf in the centre of the oven.
- Make the garlic butter by adding all the garlic butter ingredients together and mixing well until garlic and herbs are evenly distributed.
- Remove the chicken from it's packaging and dry completely with paper towel. Now flip the chicken upside down (breasts facing down), it's time to spatchcock it. Now with your kitchen shears, cut from chicken butt to chicken neck on either side of the spine. These 2 long cuts will remove the spine, you can discard this, or save it for stock. Now flip the chicken back over and lay the chicken flat. You may need to press down on the breast bone to flatten the breasts. Using your fingers gently pry the skin away from the meat at the chicken breast and at the chicken thigh. Gently make large pockets for the garlic butter to enter, reaching in as far as you can go. Now using a spoon, add all of the garlic butter to these 4 pockets (2 breasts, 2 thigh), you can use the skin to help spread the garlic butter further down into the chicken.
- Now sprinkle the chicken with the ½ tsp of salt and put the chicken in the oven.
- After about 45 minutes of cooking, using a temperature probe, check the temperature of the THICKEST part of the chicken breast AND thigh, down to the bone. Once it has reached 64 ℃, you can take the chicken out, it will continue to cook and the temperature to rise in this time. If you are a bit more cautious about chicken doneness, you can pull it at 70 ℃ and it will still be fine, the breast will be a bit more dry though. (Note 1 for more details)
- Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then carve and serve with roast potatoes, more veggies and of course gravy!
Notes
Note 1 - Internationally the "safe" agreed doneness for chicken is 70-74℃. Chicken is however is cooked at 64℃, there is just a small chance that chicken right up against the bone can be a little pink. However if you are temp checking your chicken right deep down through the thickest parts of the chicken to these bones, and getting 64℃ or above, your chicken will be cooked and safe. The reason health organisations tell you to take it to 70-74℃ is to kill off any salmonella that may or my not be in the chicken. "Salmonella bacteria cannot survive at temperatures of 60-70 degrees Celsius". So as long as we hold 64℃ for at least 2 minutes, any chicken consumed at this temperature should be safe.