December Recipe #1 : Holiday Juicy Roast Chicken 🍗🎄

Click here to watch the stream where I made this recipe!

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RECIPE: PART 1

⏰ Day before

⭐ Ingredients
Whole roasting chicken

Brine:
2 cups apple cider/juice
1 large orange, sliced
2 sprigs rosemary
1 tbsp black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup coarse salt
6 cups of ice water

• Combine all the ingredients (except for the ice water) into a sauce pot until heated to a simmer and the salt and sugar has dissolved completely.

• Add in the 6 cups of ice water to cool down the mixture.

• If the brine is still warm, let it cool down completely to room temperature before you put your chicken in.

• In a very large pot (that can fit one full chicken and the brine) or garbage bag (and pot to catch potential drippings) pour in the brine and chicken so that the brine can completely cover the chicken.

  • If it doesn’t completely cover the chicken, you might need to rotate the chicken half way through in the brine to ensure it brines evenly.

• Let it brine in your fridge overnight, or minimum 6-8 hours, no more than 24 hours. 

RECIPE: PART 2

⏰ Day of roast

⭐ Ingredients
Herb Butter Rub:
1 stick room temperature butter
2 sprigs of rosemary, stripped and finely chopped
Small handful of chives, minced small
5 sprigs of thyme, stripped and finely chopped
Minced cloves of garlic, however many you want
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Smoked paprika, however much you like

• Mince all the garlic and herbs nice and small before combining it with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.

• Mix thoroughly until mixture is even.
  

RECIPE: PART 3

⏰ Day of roast

⭐ Ingredients
Roasting the Chicken:
Brined chicken, drained, and patted dry thoroughly
Leftover zested lemon
1 carrot, chunked
1 stalk celery, chuncked
1 small onion, quartered
Few sprigs of rosemary
Few sprigs of thyme
Butcher’s twine

• Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F.

• Using paper towel, make sure the chicken is thoroughly dried on the outside and inside of the cavity. This makes sure the butter rub stays on better and will form a nice crispy skin in the oven, Make sure to dry all sides of the chicken, even the underside!

• Taking dallops of the butter rub, smear the butter all over the chicken evenly, and also inside the cavity. 

• Try to find openings under the skin by sliding your fingers gently underneath it to slightly separate the skin from the flesh, and butter in between the skin too, give it a nice gentle massage.

• Stuff the chicken cavity with the leftover lemon, chunked vegetables, and herbs. Stuff as much as you can, don't worry if you can’t stuff all of it in.

• Have your chicken breast side facing up, and the legs facing your body, wings tucked under it’s body.

• Take your butcher’s twine and slide the twine horizontally on the underside of the chicken where the wings are tucked in and bring the ends up and down towards the legs of the chicken.

• Bring the ends of twine medially down towards the cavity of the chicken, criss-cross the ends so the drumsticks are pulled towards the centre, and wrap the ends around the ends of the drumsticks a few times to keep it tied together tight.

• Tie of the ends, and cut the extra twine away. The chicken is now trussed.

• Make sure the wing tips are under the chicken because they burn easily, if not, then just tuck them in again nicely.

• Transfer to a baking tray with a baking rack on it so the drippings can drip down to the tray and not make the underside of the chicken soggy.

• Add a splash of water or chicken stock to the bottom of the tray and place the rack on the tray, and the chicken on the rack.

• Put in the oven for rough total time of 1 hour (for a 4 lb chicken). Every 20 min, take it out of oven, and baste the top of the chicken with the drippings, and put it back in the oven for another 20 min.

• Repeat the 20 min roast and baste until the 1 hour mark (3 cycles), and start using a meat thermometer to monitor the internal temperature of chicken where it is thickest (breast) until it reaches a minimal internal temperature of 165°F.

• Roast can take upwards of 1 hour to maybe 2 hours depending on how big the chicken is, so keep an eye on it after the 1 hour mark.

• Once internal temperature is good, remove from oven, and let it rest on counter for 15min before carving and serving!