Julien Gray

Roast Chicken - with a bit of zing and wack

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:47:00 +0000

A roast chicken dinner is one of my favourite meals for several reasons:

Contrary to popular belief, a roast dinner is easy to make.
It tastes amazing.
You use an entire chicken - no wasting.
You look like a boss to your Special Other, Family & Friends.

Let's call this variation...

Roast Chicken & Potatoes served with a carrot & onion gravy.

Overview:

I researched a couple of roast chicken recipes from chefs who were known for their roasts, combined my favourite tips and added my own twist. What I love about this recipe is that it uses the entire chicken down to the bones and you can turn it into several different varieties of roast chicken dishes, possibly spreading them out over 2 or even 3 days.

Roast chicken breast topped with onions and some roast potatoes on a sea of carrot & onion gravy

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
1 whole clean chicken approx. 1,25 kg
A bunch of Thyme
3 medium (sized) carrots
4 medium (sized) onions
4 large potatoes
3 Garlic Cloves
A pinch of powdered garlic
A small pinch of powdered chilli
A couple of small crushed dried chillies
Sea salt
Pepper (Adjustable pepper grinder pref.)
Chicken stock
Bottle of good red wine
1 Lime (optional)

Preparation:

Bring pot of water to boil and preheat the oven to 220° Celsius.
Peel & then chop the potatoes into preferred size.
Wash/Clean carrots & then chop into medium chunky sizes.
Peel and cut 3 onions in half, then separate onion layer by layer
Peel and cut the last onion in half, crush the garlic cloves into smaller pieces and stuff all of these into the back of the chicken with about 3 good sticks of thyme and 3 of the roughly crushed dried chilli's.
Truss your chicken. (Tie the legs up)
Boil the chopped potatoes. Strain after 10-15 minutes (when soft on outside but hard on inside) by tumbling them quite roughly around in the strainer. Let dry for a minute. This is done to make the potatoes a bit fluffier and they just taste so much better!
Put a non-stick tray into the oven with some olive and sunflower oil and seasoning (sea salt, pepper etc.) for 10 minutes.
Place potatoes into the non-stick tray with a tiny bit of crushed Thyme (optionally also some chilli powder, drizzle with a tiny bit of lime too then afterwards before consumption)

Go time:

Make a bed for the chicken out of the chopped carrots and onion layers in a deep enough tray to hold the liquids for our gravy.
Place the chicken on the bed carefully and drizzle the chicken with enough olive oil to spread into all the nooks and cranny's on the chicken.
Season with a pinch of garlic, chilli powder, sea salt & lastly season with the pepper, I prefer larger granules.
Grab some Thyme and crush it up in your palm and drizzle a bit over the chicken.
Carefully pour the chicken stock into the tray.
Add a sip or two of the red wine.
Put into the Oven for 20 mins at 220° Celsius, then put the potatoes into the oven underneath the chicken. Change the temp. to about 200° depending on the efficiency of your oven.
After about 40 minutes take the chicken out of the oven.

Finish it:

Once the chicken is complete take it out of the oven carefully and let it cool for a minute or two.
Check potatoes regularly until they are ready and turn them over in 15-18 minute intervals.
Drain the innards of the chicken into the tray with the gravy, carrots and onions.
Strain the tray into a pot through a sieve or strainer and take a large spoon and press strongly on the carrots and onions to squeeze all the juice out!
Add the strained gravy into a blender (smoothie mixer) with 2 - 8 roasted carrot chunks from the chicken tray depending on how thick you want the gravy to be (you might want to start with 3) and between 5 - 8 onion layers. Blend it together for about 40 seconds, taking a few second breaks in between to let some heavier stuff float down.
Cut the chicken however you desire (Breast, wings etc.) and serve on a plate with some gravy the potatoes on top, some carrots and onion layer on the chicken.
Serve with the red wine you used in the gravy (hence it being a good one), also you can squeeze a tiny bit of lime juice over it.
Enjoy your meal!

(Extra tip: Adding a couple of crumbs of cinnamon to the gravy on a colder day is magic.)

Later:

You can use the bone left overs to create an amazing chicken stock for future dishes or turn them into pet dishes.
Use the left over gravy and add some pumpkin in the blender and turn it into an amazing soup with a dash of Crème fraiche.
Use remainder of chicken meat and peel it off, turn it into a ridiculous roast chicken sub!

Total Cost: Under 10 Euro including the wine.

Julien Gray - Capetonian [Instrumental] // Remastered 320kbit Free DL.

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:12:00 +0000

Julien Gray - Capetonian [Instrumental] // Remastered 320kbit Free DL.

You're beautiful, thanks for listening! Please share if you like! :)

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:48:00 +0000

Pro tip: Use an old rake head to hold wine glasses.

I love it!

Only Five - EP

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:42:00 +0000

Only Five - EP

Ridiculous guy plays some dubstep live using a sampler.

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:53:00 +0000

Adobe does it again. Insane un-blur technology analyses blur motion

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:55:00 +0000

Cappuccino

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:34:00 +0000

The best live DJ light show ever. Deadmau5 @ Lollapalooza 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:32:00 +0000

Team illuminate AGAIN! Insane!

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:32:00 +0000

Outrageous street drummer

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:25:00 +0000

WOW. America actually does have some talent!

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Ridiculous beatbox

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Don't judge to soon

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:42:00 +0000

Domesticated silverback Gorilla

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:57:00 +0000

Tribe meets a white human for the first time ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Having a good time!

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:55:00 +0000

How does your office compare to Tesla's?

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:32:00 +0000

The trials and tribulations of online relationships.

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:25:00 +0000

So my latest track is done! Enjoy the summer everyone!

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:32:00 +0000

Julien Gray - Orange Beach by Julien Gray

This is the worst or best commercial ever made.

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:13:00 +0000

English is dum

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:54:00 +0000

If you consider yourself an artist watch this

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:20:00 +0000

A finger exercise to relieve all stress

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:26:00 +0000

Haters gonna hate

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:40:00 +0000

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Julien) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:29:00 +0000