Take the chicken and make sure its at room temperature to cook. Take any string or elastic bands off it so its sitting freely
Take the butter and mix it with the chopped herbs(fresh if you can get them dried are better than nothing), lemon juice and salt and pepper. Leave it to sit for an hour to let the flavours mix
Massage the bird and pinch the skin away from the flesh
At the rear end insert your fingers between the skin and the flesh and force a good gap through the membrane under the skin
Now take spoonfuls of the butter mix or you could pipe it and put it under the skin. Smooth it down evenly over the breasts and down toward the leg and wing joints
If you have any butter left smear it over the wings and drumsticks
Pour the honey over the bird and rub it so it thinly coats the skin, season very well
Take the half onion and sit it in the roasting tray near one end. Put the bird in the tray so the cavity end is resting on the onion and is angled up slightly
Pour some warm water into the cavity, crack the garlic and throw that in, you could even chuck the squeezed lemon in
Roast the bird either very quickly on a high temperature or very slowly on a low one. Its cooked when the juices run clear from the thickest part of the leg and breast
Now the important bit. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for at least 30 miutes before carving.
Sorry for the absurdly long time its taken me to reply to this. I've genuinely just noticed your comment.I deliberately didn't put cooking times because every cooker is different and every bird is different so there is no real way to say when it is cooked apart from taking it out of the oven and sticking a skewer into the thickest parts of the meat down to the bone. If the juices run clear its cooked. If they are the slightest bit pink. It goes back in the oven until its cooked. You know your cooker better than I do and the amount of time you'll have spent handling the bird you'll be able to feel how dense the flesh is so you'll know if it needs that bit extra cooking time.Apologies if this is still a bit vague. And again apologies for the ridiculously long response time.
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Sorry for the absurdly long time its taken me to reply to this. I've genuinely just noticed your comment.I deliberately didn't put cooking times because every cooker is different and every bird is different so there is no real way to say when it is cooked apart from taking it out of the oven and sticking a skewer into the thickest parts of the meat down to the bone. If the juices run clear its cooked. If they are the slightest bit pink. It goes back in the oven until its cooked. You know your cooker better than I do and the amount of time you'll have spent handling the bird you'll be able to feel how dense the flesh is so you'll know if it needs that bit extra cooking time.Apologies if this is still a bit vague. And again apologies for the ridiculously long response time.
by steven beech on Fri Aug 12 2011 reply to this comment
thers no times on cooking????
by abby8610 on Sat Apr 2 2011 reply to this comment