Festive Spiced Roast Chicken

I feel like we have a love-hate relationship with roast chicken. Personally I love it. I could happily sit there and keeping grazing at it until my waistband physically won't allow anymore. Others find it too plain, dry and a bit intimidating to cook: not enough time and you've got a health risk or too much and it's inedible.

During Christmas you've got to have a roast, its not Christmas unless you eat unnecessary volumes of roasted meats, pigs in blankets, stuffing, cheese, bread... the list goes on! With turkeys probably being even more hated than chickens, a whole lot more awkward to cook and usually exclusively for the big day we need to spice up our good old bird. Literally. I want something that's a little more special, that tastes of Christmas and leaves me and anyone else licking their fingers clean at the end of the meal.

I've used the festive classics of nutmeg, garlic, orange, cinnamon, cloves, thyme and ginger for a warm spice that makes you feel warm inside no matter how chilly it is outside. Juicy meat, sweet, sticky and spiced skin and finally a luxurious gravy to bring it all together. This recipe uses a dry brine which is a lot less messy than the classic wet brines and doesn't need as much time dedicated to preparation. Read until the end for a super easy gravy recipe for you to rightly drown your dinner in.

I've also taken the liberty to go over how you can time your cooking perfectly so you've got juicy white meat that will please everyone! This is the kind of chicken you could make Ross's Moistmaker with the next day (if you know, you know). 

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Times for Roasting Chicken:

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Roast chicken for 20 minutes at 180C.
• Decrease heat to 165C.
• Look at the weight of your chicken and then for every 500g roast for 20 minutes. So if the chicken weighs 1.5kg you would roast for the initial 20 minutes and then an additional 1 hour at the lower heat.
• After the full time remove the chicken from the oven, pour any juices from the cavity back into the roasting tray and then wrap the chicken in foil and leave to rest for a minimum of 20 minutes. It needs to rest just like a steak so the meat draws all the moisture back in and relaxes making it soft and buttery in texture.

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

• 1 whole chicken
• 1/4 segment of orange
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 10 cloves
• 5 carrots, peeled and chopped in half

For the brine (enough for a 1.7-2.3kg bird):

• 100g unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup ground sea salt
• 1 tbsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 3 sprigs worth of thyme leaves (picked off the stem)
• Zest of 1/2 orange
• 1/4 of a fresh nutmeg, finely grated
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated

For the baste:

• 200ml water 
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 tbsp. orange marmalade
• 2 star anise
• 2 bay leaves
• 1cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1 tsp black pepper 

For the gravy:

• 200ml boiling water
• 50g flour

Method:

The Brine:

Firstly we prepare the dry brine. Mix the salt, sugar, pepper, cardamom, thyme leaves, orange zest, grated nutmeg and garlic into a bowl.

In another bowl mash the butter with a fork. It needs to be soft enough to mix but you don't want it to be so soft that it melts at the touch. 

Take one third of the sugar-salt mix and combine this with the butter. 

At the neck of the chicken, at the top of the breast, use a sharp knife to make a small incision into the skin. Then use your hands or a rubber spatula or spoon, nothing too sharp, to ease all the skin clean from the breast meat underneath. This should make a giant pocket. don't overstretch the initial hole you cut and try not to tear the skin as you will end up losing the flavor you're about to pack in. Yes this can be a little bit disgusting but is it worth it? Absolutely. 

Now push the seasoned butter mix into this pocket. Once all the butter is in, hold the skin down where to make the hole to keep it from coming back too much and use your other hand to push down on the outside of the skin to then evenly spread the butter all inside. 

Next use the dry sugar-salt mixture to season the whole of the chicken. This includes the legs, underneath and inside the cavity. Get those flavours everywhere. You don't have to use the whole mixture if you have enough and can save it for other marinades. 

Once complete, cover the chicken and pop it in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour or up to 1 hour. 

The Baste:

You can make the baste ahead whilst the chicken is getting funky with its flavours in the fridge or you can make it when you need it. If you make ahead then when it comes to it just add some water and heat it back up.

Place all the basting ingredients into a saucepan on high heat and bring it to a bubble. It should take around 10-15 minutes until it starts frothy bubbling and will then begin to thicken and reduce. This is when you can put the heat to low so as not to take it too far - if you do just add a dash of water. You're looking for a liquid jammy consistency. 

Cooking the babe:

Use a deep roasting tray so as not to lose any flavours. Lay your carrots out in the middle and pop the chicken on top of the carrots. This allows for heat and steam to better rotate and travel all through the chicken for an even cook. 

Put the orange segment, thyme sprigs, cinnamon and star anise inside the chicken cavity.

Cover with foil for the first part of cooking. Because the dry brine has sugar in this will react with the heat and caramelise quickly so to ensure you don't get too dark and burn keep it covered up.

Use the cooking guidelines from above: starting at 180C in a preheated oven for 20 minutes. Then another 20 minutes for every 500g of weight at the reduced heat of 160C. 

Rotate the chicken halfway through to get an even cook and colouring.

For the last 20 minutes remove the foil and pour your spicy baste mixture over the top of the bird. Then let it roast and get golden and sticky and gorgeous. Save this saucepan to make the gravy in - don't wash the flavours away!

When the full time has been done and you've got golden skin, remove the chicken from the oven and the roasting tray but make sure you pour all the cavity juices back into the roasting tray. Don't worry if the skin is darker in some places, that's just the sugar reacting with the heat and they are bitefulls of extra flavour! Wrap in foil and let rest for at least 20 minutes. 

Making the gravy:

In the same saucepan you used for the baste put all the juices from the chicken roasting tray and the flour. Cook on medium high heat. Use a whisk to keep thoroughly mix this and don't stop whisking unless you want to burn it. After about 5 minutes once its all mixed together add the boiling water until you reach your desired volume or consistency. If you want it thicker then add more flour or it you want it looser then add more water. It shouldn't need additional seasoning but taste check and season if required. 

If you like your gravy darker then you can add a few drops of gravy browning here. 

There we go, your chicken is ready. Use this recipe for hosting your friends at Friendmass or when you feel like being a little extra damn delicious on a Sunday and you can also use this brine mix for your turkey on Christmas Day. Don't forget to let me know if you try out this recipe: tag me on Instagram @glamourandgluttony 

I hope you have a wonderful and truly gluttonous Christmas!

Love, Rachael x