Everyone should learn how to make a great roast chicken. You can cook it up for Sunday lunch, dinner with mates or impress the family at Christmas. There are a few important steps that turn a decent roast into a great one: preparing the bird, building a compound butter, pushing it under the skin, trussing the legs and pulling it out of the oven at the right temperature. Get those right and you’ve got crispy golden skin, juicy breast meat and a chicken that looks as good on the table as it tastes on the plate.

Roast Chicken Explained

The compound butter

This is where the flavour comes from, both inside the meat and on the skin. We're going to mix soft unsalted butter with lemon zest, grated garlic, picked thyme leaves, a pinch of salt and freshly ground white pepper. Black pepper is fine if that’s what you have. I always use unsalted butter as you can add salt but you can’t take it out, so i would rather manage the salt levels myself. Half the butter goes under the skin to baste the breast as it melts, and the rest goes on top of the bird at the end of trussing to crisp the skin.

Prepping the bird

First we take the wishbone out. It’s a small Y-shaped bone running from the neck up to the top of the breast and pulling it makes carving so much easier later on. Feel for it at the neck end, scrape down each side with a paring knife to expose it, then hook your finger under the top and pull it out in one piece. Then, season the inside of the cavity with salt, drop the halved lemon and any leftover thyme inside, and season the underside of the bird with salt and a little bit of butter.

Next, gently lift the skin away from the breast meat by working your fingers under it from the cavity end so you have two clear pockets above the breasts. Push a quarter of the compound butter into each side, then massage the skin from the outside to spread it evenly across the breasts. Finally, rub the remaining butter on the outside of your chicken.

Trussing

Trussing pulls the bird into a compact shape so it cooks evenly and looks like a proper roast on the table. Take about a metre of butcher’s twine and slip the middle under the wings on the back of the bird. Pull both ends up over the body and cross them over the top of the legs, then loop around the leg knuckles, criss-cross again, and pull everything tight so the knuckles cross over each other. Loop around the knuckles once more and tie it off. Rub the remaining compound butter over the outside of the bird and season generously with salt and pepper.

Cooking and resting

Roast at 200°C in a fan-forced oven, or 210°C without a fan. A small bird (around 1.5kg) takes 45 to 50 minutes, a larger one (around 2kg) closer to 1 hour 10. The target is 62°C in the thickest part of the leg, which is the slowest part to cook. Pull the chicken out and rest for 15 minutes. Carryover cooking takes the internal temperature over 70°C and the rest gives the juices time to redistribute through the meat instead of running out the second you start carving.

Ingredient Notes

Chicken: Go for a free-range or organic bird if you can. They have better flavour, better texture and a bit more fat that helps the skin crisp up. Aim for around 1.5 to 1.8kg for a 4-person roast.

Butter: Always unsalted. You’re seasoning the bird heavily on the outside, and salted butter compounds that fast. Soft, room temperature butter is essential for mixing with the other ingredients and pushing under the skin without tearing it.

Thyme: Fresh thyme only. Pick the leaves off the stems by running your fingers down the stem from top to bottom, then chop the leaves roughly. Dried thyme will go bitter and stalky in a compound butter.

Equipment

• Chopping board

• Chef’s knife

• Paring knife

• Microplane or fine grater

• Mixing bowl

• Butcher’s twine

• Roasting tray with rack

• Meat thermometer