Christmas Mini-turkey (i.e. roast chicken)

cornbb

Right, we're having a mini-christmas dinner soon and my housemates have charged me with the task of procuring and roasting a chicken. I want to cook it with streaky rashers, "proper" stuffing, and a decent gravy. I've made roast chicken before but would welcome any suggestions on how to do a great job of it, especially the stuffing, rashers and gravy part

good intentions

Hi Cornbb,

I might not have all the answers you are looking for, but I will try!

First of all - the bird. I for one would always use an organic free range bird, preferable corn fed - you can spot the corn fed ones pretty easy, as they have quite a yellow skin. If you have never eaten organic chicken before, you simply will not believe the difference in the taste. I live in Bray myself, but regularly make the trip out to terenure for purchasing meat. See link http://www.organicfoodsireland.com/index.php - I promise it will be worth it.

When roasting a chicken I usually make a marinade of Lemon Juice (about 1 lemons' worth), Thyme (small bunch), Olive Oil (about 150 ml), Salt, Black Pepper, 2/3 Garlic Cloves and 2/3 Sage Leaves. You'll be ok marinading the bird for a couple of hours before cooking - but for a really intense flavour I would nearly marinade the night before and leave in the fridge. Don't forget to keep some marinade for the cavity of the bird (makes a big difference), and also try to keep some over so you can baste the bird with it. The bird will take an hour and a half to 2 hours to cook - i would marinade at least once every 40 mins. If you insist on having the bacon option, I would buy some really good quality streaky bacon (back bacon has insufficient quantities of fat to be effective) and simply layer it on top of the bird. Use the same technique for cooking the bird as above.

For your gravy - chop up 2 shallots, or 1 onion fry off in a little olive oil (not too hot, you dont want the shallot/onion to burn, just sweat) for about 5 minutes. Add around a glass of white wine, add 2 sage leaves and a bay leaf, increase the heat, and reduce it down until the liquid volume is reduced by half. Add a half a litre of chicken stock (standard stock cubes are fine, or you can use chicken Bisto), and again reduce this by about half. (If you have any juices from the chicken you can add these, but I would recommend skimming the fat off fist). Your gravy is now ready. If you are feeling particularly decadent, add about 150ml of cream, and boil for a few minutes. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Now the stuffing - I favour a sausage meat stuffing mysef, and to be honest i don't think you can beat Superquinn's sausage meat. You will need 1lb of this. You will also need an onion, some garlic, some parsley (flat leaf if possible, about 15g or 1 tbsp), some sage (twice as much sage as parsley) and about 30g of Breadcrumbs. (If you want breadcrumbs, either make them or ask at your local bakery - I get mine from the bakery). You will also need salt and peopper to taste. If you like, you can add a tbsp of olive oil, but it is purely optional. Mix all the above ingredients together, roll into little balls, and cook for aroun d 30 mins, until the sausuage is cooked. You can easily cook these stuffing balls a few days in advance and either heat them in the oven for about 20 mins on Christmas day, or whack them in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

Phew, tired after typing that - let me know what you think and if you require any more tips!

rubadub

I take it you do not want a full size turkey so opted for the chicken. Nowadays most supermarkets will do turkey crowns. i.e. just the 2 breasts. These cook quicker and remain very juicy. One year my mother just got 2 crowns instead of a big bird. worked out way better, every scrap was eaten and not dried out from the usual turkey cooking time.

But a proper bird does look better if it is going onto the table.

cornbb

good intentions: thank you for that excellent post, some great tips there. I do intend to get a top quality bird, the best one I can find in Galway. The quality of the extras, marinading etc will depend on how much time I get to put into it between now and Thursday night. I'm definitely making that stuffing though, yum! :cool:

rubadub: thats a good tip, cheers. Think the housemates want a bird on the table though

Minder

You could try a Capon - A eunuch rooster, the flavour is deeper, but remains undoubtly chicken. It should be large enough to feed six without the need to invent meals for three days after. Sold in some supermarkets, they are usually available with Game Butchers at this time of year.

Gravy - I would avoid stock cubes or bisto, stock cubes contain a lot of salt. Chicken gravy is very easy to make. Most supermarkets sell pint poys of stock, buy a couple of chicken stock. I would pour these into a pot with a glass of white wine and reduce. When the chicken is cooked, transfer to a warm plate and cover loosely with foil to rest. You can put it into the oven if the kitchen is cold, but leave the oven door open. 15 to 20 minutes rest.

Take the roasting tray and pour off some of the fat. Add a couple of tablespoons of plain flour and cook the flour in the fat on a medium heat. After about five minutes add some chicken stock and stir frantically to remove lumps. When you have a thick paste gradually add more stock until you have the gravy you like. Continue to cook until the bird is rested. Taste and season with salt & pepper.

The Sweeper

Here's how I'd do it.

Get your chicken, some slices of white bread, a block of butter, fresh parsley, thyme and sage, an onion, garlic to taste (could be one clove, could be 10 cloves) a couple of field mushrooms and some smoked bacon - needs to be rindless, up to you if you want to use streaky or rashers, depending how much fat you want - and an egg.

Stuffing:

This one's unusual but I love it.

Take a couple of slices of day-old white bread and cut the crusts off. Slice the bread into small cubes - about a cm2, but not breadcrumbs. Put into a large bowl.

Chop your bacon into small pieces - again about 1cm2 - anf fry it off in a small amount of olive oil - I think the bacon in this is nicer if it's quite well done and crispy. Add the bacon to the bread when it's done.

Finely chop your onion and your garlic - grate the garlic if you can. Melt about 50g of butter over a gentle heat in the bacon pan, and add the onion and garlic to it. Sweat them off until they're transparent. Add the finely chopped field mushroom to the onion and garlic pan, and let it soften. Then pour the mixture into the bacon and bread in the bowl. Then add chopped fresh herbs - parsely, thyme, sage - to taste. Season with lots of black pepper, but taste your bacon croutons for salt before you add it. (Personally I leave salt out of the stuffing.)

Mix your stuffing ingredients around and allow it to cool. Here's where you judge the consistency - the bread should be sodden with butter and the juices from the mushrooms and bacon. It should bind in your hand if you squeeze it. You can add the egg to bind it when it's cool, if you like, or more melted butter if you're out for a heart attack and it's too dry.

I stuff the chicken at the neck end first - there should be enough good skin to allow you to stuff the bird neatly - slide your fingers under the skin where the breast meat meets the wings, easing it away from the body. You should be able to pack a lot of stuffing under the skin and into the neck of the bird this way. When it's full you can fold the neck skin under the body, holding the stuffing in place. The bird might not look the way you're used to it, but I find that leaving the body cavity empty or understuffed helps the bird to cook through. You can continue to load stuffing into the body cavity if you want though, just remember to adjust your cooking time.

The rest of the bird

The rest of your butter block - if I'm feeling particularly indulgent, I allow the butter to soften to room temperature and then finely chop or grate garlic, fresh herbs and salt and pepper and combine with the butter until you have a soft, pliable herb butter. Then ease your herb butter under the skin of the bird until it covers all of the meat - try easing it down into the legs and the whole lot. This is a procedure that can't be rushed - the skin will come away from the meat as you massage the butter through, but you don't want it to tear. Then liberally salt and pepper the outside of the skin.

This way ensures the chicken stays moist and it's very indulgent, but the roasting tray will contain a LOT of grease from the melted butter when the chicken's done. Now personally I'm a bloody lush and I'd serve that chicken with nothing other than a loaf of still-warm, crusty bread, a bowl of washed rocket and a bottle of good wine, and I'd bring the tray to the table and encourage people to dunk bread in roasting tray juices, but if you want to make a gravy you'll need to be sure you have one of those jugs that spouts from the bottom to separate the fat.

cornbb

Thanks for the tips everyone, I've mixed and matched bits of all your suggestions (as well as Delia's) and the bird is in the oven now :cool: