Roasted chicken is a classic. It never fails to please.  Juicy white meat with golden crisp skin and a wonderful smell makes it worth including regularly in your cooking repertoire.

A small turkey can be treated the same way as a chicken. Always look at the weight of a bird and allow 40 mins per Kg and 20 minutes more.  Roasted chicken or turkey can be good value for money if they are bought when they are on offer. A small chicken usually supplies about 500g meat and therefore it is reasonable value and even better value if you use the carcass for making soup.   You can freeze the whole fresh chicken and thaw it later for use when you want it.  Cook it when it is fully thawed. Leave it in the fridge to thaw for at least a day.  It is essential the starting point of the cooking is fridge temperature and not freezer temperature.  The end point of cooking must be over 72ºC to make sure it is really safe to eat.

Cooks Know How: Roasting is a hot method of cooking.  It is usually used for meat, potatoes or vegetables.  Roasting is traditional way of cooking and uses some sort of fat or oil to lubricate and moisten the product. You will need a roasting tin bigger than the chicken by about the width of a spoon so that you can spoon over the cooking juices about half way through the cooking time.  This is known as basting the chicken.

You will be proud of yourself if you handle a whole raw chicken and roast it to perfection.  You will notice the way removing the foil half way allows the chicken skin to turn golden brown and leaves the meat juicy and tender. You will be concerned that the chicken is well cooked and therefore you should write down the time you put it in the oven and note down when it should have the foil removed and when it will be cooked.  You will probably want to have the chicken meat as the main course meat but you may at some stage cook a chicken to get the meat off the bone and save it for use in sauce such as coronation sauce to make a main cold dish. Don’t worry if you resort to pulling the meat off the bone with your fingers rather than with a carving knife, to be honest your fingers are more effective when you want chicken pieces rather than slices. A small chicken give about 500g meat and the cooked meat can be easy to use for sandwiches and salads over a week.  It is quite good value for money and very good value if you make soup from the chicken carcass.