FarmThru to Table: Roast Chook

Crispy Roast Chook with Potatoes
One pan. One good chook. Job done.
There's a reason the roast chook never goes out of style. It feeds the whole table, fills the house with the best smell going, and asks almost nothing of you once it's in the oven.
This is how we do it at home. Potatoes boiled with bay, rosemary and whole garlic, tipped straight into the pan. A Winston Willows chook sat right on top, so every drop of juice runs down into the spuds. A knob of Pepe Saya butter to finish.
The trick is simple: start with a properly raised bird and get the skin bone dry. Do that, and the oven does the rest.
Where it comes from

The chook: Winston Willows. A roast chook is only as good as the bird you start with. Ours comes from Winston Willows, [add a line on where the farm is and how the birds are raised]. You'll taste it in the meat, and you'll see it in that deep golden skin.
The butter: Pepe Saya. Cultured butter, made right here in Sydney. A knob melted over the hot chook at the end gives you glossy skin and buttery potatoes. Don't skip it.

Ingredients
Serves 4 · Prep 15 min · Cook 1 hr 5 min
• 1 whole Winston Willows chicken (about 1.6 kg)
• 1 kg potatoes, skin on, cut into chunks
• 2 garlic bulbs
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 sprigs rosemary
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 tsp sea salt flakes, plus 1 tbsp salt for the potato water
• A good knob (about 20 g) Pepe Saya butter

Method

1. Herb-boil the spuds. Put the potatoes in a pot of cold, salted water with the bay, rosemary and garlic. Bring to the boil and cook for about 10 minutes, until the outsides are just tender and the middles still firm.
2. Into the pan. Heat the oven to 220°C. Drain the potatoes and tip the lot (herbs and garlic included) into the pan you'll roast in. A cast-iron skillet is perfect.
3. Pat it dry. Dry the chicken skin all over with paper towel. Dry skin means crispy skin.
4. Salt it up. Season generously, inside and out. One salt hand, one chicken hand, so nothing raw ends up in your salt.
5. Stuff with lemon. Pop the lemon halves in the cavity. Citrus gives the meat a lovely aromatic lift from the inside.
6. Roast hot. Sit the chook right on top of the potatoes and roast at 220°C for 10 minutes.
7. Then low and slow. Turn the oven down to 180°C and roast for about 45 minutes more, until the skin is deep golden and the juices run clear (75°C in the thickest part of the thigh).
8. Butter, rest, carve. Top the hot chook with the Pepe Saya butter and let it melt down into the potatoes. Rest for 10 minutes, then carve at the table.

Tips from our kitchen
• Bigger bird? Give a 2 kg chook an extra 10 to 15 minutes at 180°C and check the thigh temperature.
• Don't waste the garlic. Squeeze the soft cloves out of their skins and smash them through the potatoes.
• Crispier still? Salt the chook the night before and leave it uncovered in the fridge.

Find the chicken in the shop - https://farmthru.com.au/au/categories/poultry