Traditional Roast Chicken

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Ingredients:

1 free range chicken, weighing 1.5-2kg
500g goose fat
12 kipfler potatoes
1 head garlic
8 shallots
8 baby turnips
8 Dutch carrots
8 sprigs thyme
100ml Madeira wine
100ml water
Salt and pepper

Persillage (herbed breadcrumbs)
2 tablespoons curly leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic
4 tablespoon olive oil
50g breadcrumbs

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 140C.

Place the chicken on a chopping board. Remove the neck, wish bone, wing tips and legs.

Pre-heat the goose fat to 120C, in an oven proof pot with a lid.

Season the chicken legs with salt and pepper.

Add the chicken to the goose fat and cover lightly with foil, place the lid on and put into the oven.

Leave in the oven for 1- 1 1/2 hours or until the chicken flesh starts to fall off the bone. Remove from oven and allow to cool, keep refrigerated until ready for the next stage of preparation.

The above steps should be completed at least a day in advance.

Next Day

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

To make the persillage (herbed breadcrumbs), place the parsley, thyme, garlic, olive oil and breadcrumbs in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is fine. Remove from the food processor and keep to the side until required.

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and carefully place the carcass on a board with the neck facing you. With a sharp pair of poultry scissors or a sharp knife, remove the underside of the back of the chicken leaving only the crown.

Chop the back bone up into 2 inch pieces, also chop the neck and wing pieces into 2 inch pieces.

Add the chopped pieces to a cast iron or aluminum baking tray and leave to the side.

With your finger tips carefully and precisely run your fingers up the skin of the breast, separating the skin from the breast meat, starting at the opening where the neck joint was.

Take a large handful of persillage (parsley breadcrumbs) and start to fill the cavity between the breast meat and skin. Continue to do this until the breasts are completely covered.

Rub 2 tablespoons of French butter over the skin of the crown (breasts). Place on a baking tray, season well, then cover tightly with foil.

Place the chicken into the oven and cook for 1 hour.

Place the kipfler potatoes into a pot, cover with water, season well and boil until soft. Drain the water from the potatoes, let them cool for 5-10 minutes, then peel away the skin.

Toss the potatoes, with the shallots and garlic, in a generous amount of goose fat. Season well and add to the roast chicken tray.

Wash the turnips and carrots (particularly concentrate around the tops of the vegetables to free them of grit). Place in a bowl and toss together with the thyme and again a generous amount of goose fat. Season well and set aside until 15 minutes before the chicken is ready, at this time you can add to the roasting tray as well.

At intervals during the roasting process, remove the foil and ladle some goose fat from the pot with the legs over the chicken breasts.

After 1 hour of cooking, remove the tray from the oven and leave to rest in a warm place. Cover the tray with aluminum foil.

Place a heavy based fry pan or skillet over a medium heat and pre heat. Add the chicken legs to the pan, season well with salt and pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes over a medium heat until crisp on the skin side, drain well on absorbent paper and rest with chicken crown.

Remove all the vegetables apart from the chicken trimmings, from the tray onto a warm serving plate.

Drain any fat in the tray into a cup and reserve.

Place the tray directly onto the stove and set to medium heat. Once the tray has reached a stage where all the sediment stuck to the tray starts to colour, deglaze with Madeira and reduce, stirring and scraping with a plate knife or egg flip to remove the flavour from the bottom of the tray and impart it into the Madeira.

Once the Madeira has nearly reduced to 2/3, add the water and bring to the boil. Reduce for a further 2 minutes, strain the sauce to a saucepan, taste and season to your liking. The sauce should resemble a thin gravy. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the chicken fat into the sauce. Do not stir.

Remove the warm breasts from the bone and cut into 4 equal pieces, repeat for the legs and place into the centre of each dinner plate, place garlic, shallots, turnips, carrots and thyme and sauce over and around the chicken.

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