Roasting chicken, just like making potato omelette or cooking paella, is something that everyone does at home and everyone does fatally. Let’s be honest with ourselves, there’s nothing wrong with assuming it: who hasn’t brought out a very dry chicken dish, without any broth with which to fix it a bit, or a watery pseudopaella with hard grain? Admitting it is the first step to learning how to do better.
The main consequence of a poorly roasted chicken is that it stays dry as a raisin, and you only have to know a couple of things so that this does not happen. In a normal oven -of those that are not spaceships with thirty ways to prepare each recipe- the food is cooked by the transmission of heat through the air that surrounds it into the interior of the food. This heat evaporates the water from the product that is inside, so if we do not add humidity to that environment, the logical thing is that it remains dry.
What can we do then? Add a liquid -stale wine, beer or the bottom of the white bottle that is making vinegar in the fridge- that generates steam, moistens the meat and also helps us form a sauce at the bottom of the tray. During the time it is cooking it can be removed and with the help of a spoon water the chicken with the broth that remains underneath.
Something that we also do not want in our star dish on Sunday is that it be bland, which is usually a constant that ends up masked between mayonnaise and mashed potatoes. If whole thighs and thighs are being roasted, dry the skin well with absorbent paper and sprinkle with salt and pepper all over the surface. With a whole chicken we will do it without fear, inside and out.
Aromatizing it is another key point. Thyme, rosemary, slices and zest of lemon, orange or grapefruit -the juice will also give us flavor and that sought-after moisture-, oregano, dill, mustard, coriander seeds, soy sauce… In this recipe, grapefruit and rosemary are the more than good. The more time in contact with the meat, the more aroma: I like to leave the chicken marinating in the fridge with the mixture of spices and liquids that I have chosen for the occasion, which also softens the meat and gives it juiciness.
Finally, the oven temperature. Neither low temperatures nor milk. 180ºC heat up and down with a fan and approximately one hour for a kilo of chicken, an hour and a half for a kilo and a half. The best thing is to be attentive to the oven, that the skin begins to brown, that when sticking a knife it feels tender. We will finish cooking by grilling for five minutes to get a very crispy surface. If we have a thermometer, it will have to mark 72ºC inside. If you have room on the tray -if you can’t always put another one, ovens usually have two- add some chopped potatoes about 45 minutes before cooking is finished and you already have the garnish solved.
Difficulty
Remember to pour the juice over the chicken during cooking
Ingredients
for 4 people
- A 1.5 kg chicken
- 1 grapefruit (juice and zest)
- 50 g of dates
- 1 glass of sweet wine
- 125 g Greek yogurt
- 3 – 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 25g capers
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Pepper
- Salt
Preparation
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Cut the chicken into a butterfly (in this video we show you how to do it). In a bowl, mix the grapefruit juice, the yogurt, the grapefruit zest cut into large pieces, the rosemary, salt and pepper and half a glass of wine. Smear the chicken with the mixture, cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for at least four hours.
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Preheat the oven to 180ºC with heat up and down.
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In an oven tray with a bottom, place the chicken with the liquid. Add a good splash of olive oil, the pitted dates and the capers.
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Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn over and pour over the remaining half glass of wine.
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Bake 30 more minutes. Remove from the oven, check the point of the meat. Turn over and with a spoon cover the chicken with the liquid from the tray. Add a little more olive oil.
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Bake for another 20 minutes, putting the grill on for the last five minutes.
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Remove from the oven, cover the tray with aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 minutes. Serve with the strained sauce to remove impurities.
If you make this recipe, share the result on your social networks with the hashtag #RecipesComidista. And if it goes wrong, complain to the Defender of the Cook by sending an email to [email protected].
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