(mellow music)
- Hey, I'm Ben.
One of the chefs at Sorted Food.
And today I'm gonna show you two ways to roast a chicken.
Both of which are simple, one tray bakes,
that you're gonna wanna do in midweek.
(upbeat music)
We would always say, buy the best chicken
that you can afford.
But regardless of where in the scale that is,
if you buy a whole chicken,
it is going to be more affordable than the sum
of all the parts bought individually at the same quality.
So, buy a whole bird, and then you get the added benefit
of the carcass, and the wings,
and all the extra flavour that comes along with it.
And that's what makes this tray bake so special.
My first recipe is a roasted fennel, lemon,
and potato chicken bake, all in one tray.
It's so simple.
We're gonna start with the veg.
Per portion, you want a handful of new potatoes.
Halve them, and throw them into a deep roasting tray.
Then chop up a bulb of fennel, a leek, and a whole lemon,
peel and seeds, the whole lot, and toss it all together
in that tray with oil, salt, and pepper.
So we've roasted chicken before on a trivet,
which is basic mirepoix, of celery, carrot, onions,
and then when it all cooks down, you use that for gravy.
It's delicious.
All I've done this time, is up that veg to stuff
that we actually want to eat as the veg midweek,
but it was still catch all of
those chicken juices as it roasts.
So it is phenomenal.
But this needs a headstart, in an oven, 200 degrees Celsius
for about 20 minutes, while we prep the chicken.
(upbeat music)
And now for a few tips to make sure
that this roast chicken is perfect.
Now you'll notice a chicken like this,
plenty for four people.
Our tray bake, we put in two handfuls of potatoes,
there's enough veg for two.
And that's because we're gonna roast the whole bird off,
eat half of it with the tray bake.
And we've got half a roasted chicken
to put for a salad or pasta dish,
or stir through a quick curry later on in the week.
That's kinda just smart and getting ahead.
But for the chicken, make sure it's at room temperature.
You'll get a better cooked bird if it's at room temperature.
Then making sure there's no giblets inside,
and if there are take them out.
If they're aren't put, in a lemon quartered.
What that will do is as it roast, is steam the chicken
from the inside with lovely citrus fragrance.
You're gonna make sure that it's untied,
'cause if it's tied up, it's all really close.
By untying it, you let the heat get in to the deepest parts,
which is the dark meat around the leg.
And finally, you're going to butter
and season all over the top.
This does a couple of things,
allows the seasoning to stick.
The butter along with the chicken fat
will also drip into our tray,
and it's also adding an extra flavour.
Oil would also work, olive oil, rapeseed oil, you chose.
Obviously wash your hands after touching the chicken.
What you don't wanna do is put raw chicken
all over everything else you're touching in the kitchen
and then generous seasonally,
season generously.
And if you get this bit right,
the skin that comes out is so good,
'cause we're roasting at the high temperature.
It's buttered, it's seasoned, it'll go lovely golden brown.
I think these little tips really help.
My biggest criticism of when other people roast chicken
is they often overcook it and dry it out.
And it's things like bringing up to room temperature
opening it out, letting it steam from the inside as well,
that really just help to cook it evenly, succulently,
whilst also saving all of the juices
that drip down into tray bake.
With the vege having had a 20 minute head start,
the chicken can sit on top and it goes back into the oven
for about 45 to 60 minutes,
depending on the size of your chicken.
(mellow music)
So our chicken has had loads of resting time,
and that's important 'cause it lets all the juices settle.
Wow!
And this is why the benefit of the whole chicken.
All of those roasting juices have dropped
into this amazing tray.
Then stir in some creme fraiche, or sour cream,
or double cream, or yoghurt, whatever you've got
and loads of fresh herbs.
We're using basil and rosemary.
Personally, if it's a freshly roasted bird
I like to eat the breasts straight away
while it's warm and succulent.
But also what it's warm pick all the dark meat,
the leg meat, the wings, the oysters
from underneath the chicken.
Puts it into a bowl, cover it, put it in the fridge,
and you can use that another night.
It warms wonderfully through pasta, you can toss it
through salads or even turn it into a curry.
A tad messy, but absolutely worth it,
'cause what you're left with is two chicken breasts.
We've done skin on and skin off
to serve with your tray baked veg.
A mountain of dark meat, pop that in the fridge
for another night, and carcass and bones
which you can cook into a delicious broth
as the base to so many other dishes, all from one chicken.
So often roast chicken is overlooked as a midweek option
but it's pretty hands-off once it's a tray bake
or a spatchcock, it goes in the oven, it does its thing.
It's delicious.
It's effortless and worth it.
(mellow music)
Our second midweek roast chicken dish
is going to be spatchcock peri peri chicken
with spicy wedges.
Just like before we want to make the most
of having a whole chicken.
So we want to catch the chicken juices
from the carcass and the meat on the bone as it roasts.
So we're gonna do it as a tray bake.
I'm gonna start from the bottom of the tray.
Spuds, two portions.
One big spud per portion, cut them into wedges
and lay them on the bottom of a tray with some baking paper.
Potatoes aren't all the same shape or size
but you'll notice I've cut them,
so that now they're all gonna cook roughly equally.
Just season the wedges with salt 'cause all of the rest
of the flavour and fat is gonna drop down onto them.
Then we're gonna place a wire rack, that's ovenproof,
over the top of the roasting tray and our chicken
is gonna sit on top of there, so that all of the air
from the oven can circulate and roast it quickly and evenly
and keep it succulent,
but the juices can drip onto our potato wedges.
Now you absolutely can do exactly the same
to the chicken that you did before.
However, if you cut it spatchcock style
it cooks a little bit quicker,
and you've got more surface area for the chilli sauce
we're gonna put over the top.
To do that you're just gonna cut out
the backbone of the chicken.
So there's your chicken, two breasts, two legs, two wings
flip it over, that's the backbone.
You just wanna cut with a very strong pair of scissors
by the side of it.
(upbeat music)
So that is literally the backbone, or the spine
of the chicken, it's great for stocks and things.
Today we're not gonna use it, but the chicken
you have left you can then open out flat
and push down on the breastbone to make sure it's flat.
Lift it onto your wire rack.
At this point you could just season the chicken,
salt, and pepper, however, we're gonna slather it
in a homemade chilli peri peri style sauce.
So that's garlic cloves, red chilli, olive oil,
red wine vinegar, fresh oregano, and a little bit
of smoky chilli sauce we haven't had
in the cover, 'cause we made it before.
But basically make a chilli sauce that you love,
as hot as you like, as herbie as you like,
as garlic-y as you like, as lemon-y as you like,
but it should have some of that red wine vinegar
or lemon juice so that you've got the acid as well.
Or there is absolutely no harm in just buying a chilli sauce
that you can rub over.
Same temperature oven as the first recipe,
200 degrees and it's gonna need 45 minutes.
While it's in there, you can wash your hands,
your board, your scissors, and everything
that's touched a raw chicken.
After 45 minutes of roasting, get it out of the oven.
You can see the skin is gorgeous.
Serve the spatchcock next
to a mount of those peri peri soaked wedges.
(upbeat music)
I think a lot of people overlook roast chicken
as a midweek option, but you saw how easy it was.
Two completely different ways of doing it,
and it's pretty hands off.
A little bit of work upfront and then stick it in the oven.
Let the oven do the hard work
and you end up with this deliciousness.
So if you want to put your new roast chicken technique
into practise, then right now over on our meal packs app
you can get more of the same ideas throughout the week,
that will stretch your budget and feed
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plus it's free for a month.
- [Mike] Excellent.
(Mike, get involved in this)
- [Ben] I'm not sure that potato, leek, and funnel
has ever tasted so good.
Free chicken deliciousness.
- [Mike] Looks outstanding.
(mellow music)
And it tastes outstanding.
Wow!
You cannot beat a chicken when it's roasted like that.
You just can't.