Roast chicken with a sage butter, bread sauce

Rule number 1, buy the best chicken that you can afford.  Sorry to labour the point, but this dish is only ever going to be as good as the chicken that you start out with, buy a good one use all of it.  That means  giblets for gravy, bones for stock and liver for a tasty morcel of a treat (more of that in a later post).

I used a sage butter with this chicken but initially intended to use wild garlic (unfortunately my secret foraging spot drew a blank), thyme, parsley and tarragon all work very, very well too.

Ingredients (to feed 4 hungry adults);

1 good quality chicken, ideally with giblets
1 onion
1 or 2 carrots
A few sticks of celery
A bunch of sage
125g softened butter
Salt and pepper
Veg for roasting
Plain flour (if you like a thick gravy)

And for the bread sauce;
1 onion
250ml milk (full fat ideally but you can use whatever's in the 'fridge!)
3 cloves
1 bay leaf
4 slices of bread

Directions

1) Take your chicken out of the 'fridge at least 1 hour before you want to cook it and untruss.

2) Pick the sage (or other herb) leaves and mix with the softened butter and a good grind of salt of pepper.

3) Prepare some vegetables to go under the bird.  Cut the onion and carrots in half, there's no need to skin them.  Mix with the celery and giblets (reserving the liver) and place the bird on top.

4) Prepare other vegetables for roasting (if required) and place around the bird with a little seasoning and some oil.  I'm using par boiled potatoes and raw swede here.

5) Pre heat the oven to 250C and smear the herb butter onto the breasts of the bird under the skin and across onto the tops of the thighs.

6) Roast at 250C for 20 minutes and then turn down to 140C, covering the chicken with foil if browning too quickly, turn the veg when you check after 20 minutes.  Roast for a total of 1- 1.5 hours depending on the size of your chicken.  Check by moving the chicken's legs if they feel "loose" it's ready, the juices should also run clear.

7) Make your bread sauce. Peel the onion and stud with the cloves, add to the milk with salt, pepper and a bay leaf.  Put on a low heat and bring to the simmer for around 30 minutes.  Remove the cloves and bay leaf, chop the onion and return to the milk.  Tear the bread into small pieces and add to the milk, leave on a low heat and stir.  Allow the bread to absorb all of the milk (adjust with a little more bread or milk as required) and then turn off the heat.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

8) Take the chicken out of the roasting tray along with the roast veg, cover with foil and allow to rest (you can put the veg back in the oven on another tray if they need to "crisp").

9) Place the roasting tin onto the hob over a medium / high heat and add a tablespoon of flour, scrape the tray well combining the flour with any fat and roasting juices.  Add 500ml of boiling water to the tin and stir continuously until simmering.

10) Allow the gravy to simmer and reduce for a least 15 minutes squashing the veg as you stir to extract every ounce of flavour. You should now have a thin, dark brown gravy, taste for seasoning and adjust.

11) Strain your gravy, carve the bird and serve with vegetables (buttered cabbage in addition to the roasties here) and bread sauce.

It seems a little long winded written down like this, but all pretty straight forward...  For me this is how all roast dinners should be, real gravy made just with meat juices and the proper accompaniments.  Bread sauce is also a traditional accompaniment for partridge and grouse.  Keep watching the blog to discover what I did with the chicken carcass and liver!