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Heston Blumenthal's roast chicken recipe
Created by Heston Blumenthal
- Cuisine: English
- Prep Time: 20 min(s)
- Cook Time: 3 hr(s) 10 min(s)
- Serves 4–6
Heston Blumenthal: "A firm family favourite made extra juicy by brining the chicken before roasting it then cooking it for a long time at a gentle temperature. Brining is a fantastic technique for keeping moisture in food and it is incredibly simple to do. It involves a little forethought but minimum effort and it will guarantee a juicy and succulent bird every time."
Warning: In this recipe, whilst Heston cooks his chicken to an internal temperature of 60°C, if you want to stick to safety guidelines your chicken should reach 75°C in the thickest part of the breast.
You will need to begin this recipe 1 day ahead.
Ingredients
1.5–2kg chicken6% brine (300g salt dissolved in 5 litres of water)
1 lemon
1 bunch of thyme
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for rubbing into the skin
30ml dry white wine
For the gravy (optional)
20ml dry white wine
250ml chicken stock
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 sprig of tarragon
1 sprig of parsley
Preparation
Brining time: overnightResting time: 45 minutes
Remove the trussing from the chicken then place it in a clean container. Pour over the brine ensuring that the chicken is submerged then cover the container with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
Remove the chicken from the liquid and dry well with kitchen paper. Remove the wishbone and place on a cooling rack over a tray.
Preheat the oven to 90ºC (about fan 70°C, gas mark ¼, but use an oven thermometer to get an accurate temperature).
Roll and pierce the lemon then place it in the cavity of the bird with half the thyme. Rub some butter on top of the skin.
Place the chicken on the rack in a roasting tray and place in the oven. Roast the chicken until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast is 60ºC (this should take 3–4 hours).
Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest for 45 minutes. Turn the oven temperature as high as it will go.
In the meantime, melt the butter in a pan and add 30ml wine and a few sprigs of thyme. Bring to the boil then remove the pan from the heat and use the melted butter to baste the chicken before and during browning.
Once the resting time has elapsed, put the chicken back in the roasting tray and return it to the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown, taking care that it doesn’t burn.
Once coloured, remove the chicken from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
To carve the chicken, remove the legs by slicing down where they meet the breast and splaying them outwards to expose the joint, which you can then sever.
Remove the breast by running a sharp knife deeply into the flesh along one side of the centre bone that extends the length of the bird, making a deep vertical cut. Then cut horizontally through the flesh at the bottom of the breast until the horizontal cut meets the vertical, separating the breast from the ribcage. Repeat the procedure on the other side of the centre bone. The breasts can then be laid cut-side down on the chopping board and sliced.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper
If making the gravy...
When the chicken has been browned and removed from the roasting tray, place the tray containing the juices on the hob over a medium-high heat. Add the white wine and scrape and stir to deglaze the pan. Add the chicken stock and cook until reduced to a sauce. Strain into a small saucepan.
Before serving, stir in the mustard and warm through. Finish with freshly chopped tarragon and parsley and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
If you enjoyed this Heston Blumenthal's roast chicken recipe then browse more English recipes, meat recipes, how to cook like heston recipes, entertaining recipes, slow cooking recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
English Restaurants
Displaying 10 of 68 English Restaurants.
| Restaurant | Book Online | Suburb | |
| 1. | Prince Albert Bar | Broadbeach | |
| 2. | Chesser Cellar | Adelaide | |
| 3. | De Bortoli Winery and Restaurant | Dixons Creek | |
| 4. | Fenix | Richmond | |
| 5. | Restaurant Balzac | Randwick | |
| 6. | Slug 'n' Lettuce Tavern | Parafield Gardens | |
| 7. | Four In Hand Hotel | Paddington | |
| 8. | The Lord Dudley Hotel | Woollahra | |
| 9. | Moon and Sixpence | Perth | |
| 10. | Bistrode CBD | Sydney |
Comments (14)
Previous
10 Feb 2013 08:40 AEST
Jess
Echuca
Good and bad
The breast part was delicious but I was pretty unnerved by the amount of pink liquid that came out of the chicken when I carved it and the joints didn't seem to be cooked at all. I really enjoyed the saltiness of the meat but made the very silly mistake of seasoning the top with salt before I served it...oops.
Agree(1 people agree)
Disagree(0 people disagree)
04 Feb 2013 09:47 AEST
a
Sydney
Juicy but too salty
This recipe was a little too salty, there is another one of Hestons recipes that has the additional step of placing the chicken in a container of fresh water prior to cooking, which would help remove the excessive salt. Also the other recipe recommends an 8% (80g salt per litre) brine solution. I will try this next time as otherwise the chicken was perfect.
28 Jan 2013 07:46 AEST
Andrew Brierley
Dapto
Succulent but slightly too salty
I followed the recipe to the letter and the results were definitely the most succulent chicken I have ever cooked. It was however too salty for my taste so I will try again, I suspect I left it in the brine for way too long at around 20 hours. I will try 12 hours of less next time.
Andrew
26 Jan 2013 04:20 AEST
Fuckoo
Fuckton
07 Jan 2013 09:38 AEST
Chicken coop plans
frenklin.staus@gmail.com
03 Oct 2012 11:51 AEST
Kim
Kogarah
Perfect
Perfect, on reading other comments it's so frustrating that people are still ruled by conventional wisdom (wives tales) This recipie is based on scientific fact and provided by a food scientist and the worlds best chef. Grandma's friend heard from the lady across the street that the earth is flat and that the world would be a better place if women were circumsized. Wake up people ?
25 Jul 2012 09:32 AEST
LucreziaBorgia
Bendigo
Waaay too salty!
I followed the recipe but used a 4.5Lt slow cooker, which runs at (a tested) consistent 90C on low.
Great result, and will certainly do it again, but forget that brining - the chicken flesh was as salty as potato crisps!
Be careful with putting your oven "Up as high as it will go" for the browning: our cats were even complaining at the eye-watering smoke-filled kitchen! Strongly suggest that everyone invest in meat probes - they're silly cheap on eBay and may save the trots! Go for that 75C...
25 Jun 2012 08:04 AEST
Nick
Smithfield
Needs more heat and/or time
I followed this recipe to the tee, it was very disappointing. I even checked the temperature regularly with an oven thermometer (internal, so not opening door to check). Upon carving the thigh joints in particular they were quite raw. So I had to return the chicken into a 180C oven for 20 minutes. What a shame, still a very nice chicken but I think I'll stick to the old 180C method once it's out of the brine..
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