Roast Chicken (or partridge)

a roast chicken is a lovely thing. Either with roasties, or ciabatta – always feels like a treat.

Prep: 2min Cook: 90min (depends on bird)

Ingredients

1 Chicken or 2 Partridge

50ml sherry

olive oil, salt, water

Method

  1. preheat oven to 200c (fan)
  2. pour the sherry into the body cavity(s), add about 100ml of water to the base of the pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Cook and baste. For partridge cook for 30 min, baste every 10 and turn the oven down to 175c after 15min. For Chicken, baste every 20min, cook for 45min/kg + 20min and turn the oven down to 175c after 20min.
A roast chicken, 15min to go…

I put water into the pan to keep a moist atmosphere while the bird cooks. The high initial temperature and the use of olive oil and salt means the bird will still brown, but will also be succulent. I use sherry to flavour the bird, and because unlike using herbs or spices it doesn’t overly distort the flavour from the stock I make from the bones.

If you like you can use a bit of thyme, then the stock is excellent for paella. Or Cumin, then the stock is ideal for couscous or curry. you can also drape a partridge with a couple of slices of streaky bacon and leave the oven at 200c, but you still need to baste to get the best from it.

To serve I simply joint the bird, parsons nose, legs, wings, breasts. Then pull the remaining meat off. Leftovers are for breakfast or the following days tea.

I will very occasionally roast a partridge, but normally stick to chicken. I think you can do much better with partridge in other dishes, and plucking is a pain! I don’t roast pheasant for two reasons, firstly you have to pre-pull the leg tendons with pliers, and as I said – plucking is a pain,