Roasted chicken with baked potatoes Italian style

Roasted chicken with roasted potatoes Italian style.

Today I prepared roasted chicken.

I never found reason why some people are discussing a lot about roasting chicken. You just put a bird in the oven, 185- 200 C, 30 min. per 1 kilo of chicken and bob’s your uncle. You can garnish with onion, garlic, herbs and spices, or just salt and pepper. There is no philosophy here. It is really so simple that anyone can do it, like the most of the cooking.

Just find yourself nice chicken and examine it properly. You do not want a chicken with some blood stains or to much residues of feathers.

If you find some residues of feathers just burn them off with the kitchen torch.

I like to put in the cavity cloves of garlic, onion, salt, pepper, butter and sometime rosemary or sage, some salt on the skin.

The chicken will release its own fat, and if you use a baking paper you do not have to add some extra fat, maybe just a soup spoon of oil. If you will lay your chicken directly on the metal of a baking trey, it is good to add firstly one cup of oil or butter and then a chicken. If not, skin can get stuck on the metal.

It is always advisable to roast your chicken with the thighs upward, laying on its back. The chicken breasts are lean meet with not much fat deposit in the flesh, very well explained in the McGee’s book, and they can be very dry, once the baking is finished.

By keeping the chicken most of the time on its back, some of the fat from its thighs will soak the breast and prevent this dryness. However, to achieve nice colour and crispy skin I usually turn the chicken now end then and keep it with the back up for 5-10 min

Once that chicken is done you can remove it and keep on the warm place. In the same fat in your baking dish you can add some precooked- poached vegetables in salty water (potatoes, carrots), or some fresh spring onion or whole garlic cut in halves, raise the temperature to 200 -220 C, and brown all that in next 15- 20 min.

Meanwhile you can start cutting your chicken and preparing for serving.

Bon Appetit – Dobar tek