I may have mentioned before that I moved into a new apartment about 2 months ago and I have an actual, normal-sized, kitchen now! Those of you living in Korea will, no doubt, immediately understand but for those abroad I’ll just say counter space is seriously lacking. More often than not we’ll end up ordering in or eating out to avoid the frustration of trying to prepare any kind of meal in a shoebox-kitchen.
After 5 years of not being able to truly experiment with cooking, I finally have my freedom🥲. In the space of 2 weeks I made some oh-so satisfying dishes that I really must start sharing.
Roast Chicken and Veg
This ones an absolute classic! No real skills required and minimal effort needed. However…I did initially undercooked the chicken but that’s on me for trying to use the airfryer setting for the first time on a whole-ass chicken.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 3 potatoes
- 13 cloves of garlic
- Rosemary (about 1 tblspn)
- Butter
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Olive oil
- Cayenne pepper
Method:
1. Chop up the veg into nice chunky pieces and spread them across your baking tray. I’m a little garlic obsessed, hence the 13 cloves, but you could throw in however many you’d prefer with the veg. Then give these an even drizzle of olive oil.
2. Prep your chicken by using a paper towel to dab off any moisture, this’ll help get that super crispy skin.
3. In a small bowl mix together about 3 spoons of softened butter (more depending on the size of your chicken) and your finely chopped rosemary. Now that creamy deliciousness can then be spread evenly under the skin of your chicken. Be careful with this step! I was a little too aggressive and tore apart a lot of the skin. Rather, lift the skin gently from the bottom of the bird and push in a small amount of butter. Then using your thumbs massage the butter up the bird from on-top of the skin. You can rub any excess butter over the legs and wings.
4. Seasoning time! Place your chicken on the veggies and throughly season everything with salt, pepper and cayenne (if you like a little spice, that is). Don’t forget to turn over your chicken and do the same on the other side.
5. Now, depending on your oven, you wanna bake this guy for about 45 min at 180 degrees Celsius with foil over the top (shiny side in). After that you’ll remove the foil and get him back in for a further 15-20 minutes until the skin is beautifully golden and crispy. If you’re trying this with an airfryer then I really don’t know😑 (I now have trust issues). But please leave a comment on what timing and temp you’d recommend if you’ve tried it before.
6. You should probably wait about 10 minutes before carving so as not to lose all the juiciness, but I definitely couldn’t help myself from immediately diving in.
Tip: if, like me, you start carving up your chicken and notice that it’s not totally cooked all the way through (damn airfryer mode) just place the now cut up pieces back into the oven at 180 for a further 10-15 minutes. It’ll cook through faster once cut.
You’ll notice that the most difficult part about this recipe is stopping yourself from eating those juicy, tender, crispy pieces before having actually carved the bird.
If you have any of your own tips and tricks for a delicious roast please drop a comment so I can try
Bon appetit!
