Recipe: Stephanie Alexander’s “All-Time Favourite” Roast Chicken, From The Cook’s Companion

Few Aussie chefs hold a candle to Stephanie Alexander AO. At 85, the Melbourne-based chef still cooks for herself most days – just as countless Australians still turn to her home-cooking bible, The Cook’s Companion, each night.

This month, the hefty tome celebrates its 30th anniversary. To mark the milestone, Alexander has updated the collection with 90 new or revised recipes. With more than half a million copies of the original sold, it’s an essential for any home cook, whether you’re a newbie or a pro.

To celebrate, we’re sharing Alexander’s recipe for her “all-time favourite” roast chicken – a classic for your cooking rotation. “This is the way I roast my chicken – with the vegetables around the bird,” Alexander writes. This tried-and-true method enables the veggies to soak up all the savoury juices from the meat.

Her secret to that golden, crispy skin? A high-heat start followed by regular turning and basting. While the technique is precise, the ingredients are flexible. “Chunks of parsnip, pumpkin, turnip and carrot and small onions are all good to add with the potato,” Alexander writes, encouraging cooks to use what’s in season.

If you’re pressed for time, Alexander suggests butterflying (spatchcocking) the bird to cut the cooking time without losing the soul of a Sunday roast.

Finally, in true resourceful fashion, she recommends simmering the bones into a stock. Once cooked, freeze the stock in ice cube trays and pop them in the freezer. “A meal of risotto, a soup or a sauce can then be prepared with very little fuss,” she writes.

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Roast chicken by Stephanie Alexander

Serves 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 x 1.8kg chicken
1 lemon, halved
2-3 cloves garlic
Salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
1 large sprig rosemary, plus extra leaves
Walnut-sized piece of butter (about 1-2 tbsps)
2-3 red-skinned potatoes, quartered
Mixed vegetables, cut into chunks
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
White wine or vermouth, verjuice, stock or water

Method

An hour and a quarter before dinner, preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Rub chicken vigorously inside and out with lemon.

Crush the garlic with the back of a knife, roll in salt and pepper and insert in cavity with lemon halves, rosemary sprig and butter. Put the chicken into a large baking dish.

Put the potatoes and vegetables into a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add a few rosemary leaves and oil, and toss to coat. Scatter vegetables around the chicken and massage its skin with the seasoned olive oil. Turn the chicken on its side.

Place the baking dish in the centre of the oven. After 20 minutes, turn the chicken over onto its other side and carefully turn the vegetables. After a further 20 minutes, turn the chicken breast-side up, baste it with the juices, loosen the vegetables and roast for another 20 minutes. (During this final cooking time, dry and dress a large green salad.)

Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C (140°C). Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a heatproof plate and rest in the oven. Discard all fat from the baking dish and deglaze over heat with wine. Stir vigorously to dislodge all the cooked-on good bits, and lengthen with either a little more wine, homemade stock, tomato sauce or cream. Joint the chicken, arrange on a serving platter with vegetables and pour juices over.

Notes

Short cut

If you only have 45 minutes before dinner, cut the chicken in half down either side of the backbone using heavy scissors. (Reserve the backbone for stock.) Season and massage chicken as above. Put the garlic and lemon halves underneath the chicken in the baking dish. The vegetables will need to be cut smaller to cook in time (or forget roast vegetables and serve a salad and grilled eggplant or green beans). There will be no need to turn the chicken, although it should be basted with juices after the first 20 minutes.

Gravy

If you believe that chicken must have gravy, stir 1 tbsp plain flour into the baking dish before deglazing. Wait until the flour is a good brown colour before adding 1 cup deglazing liquid and stirring very vigorously with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps. As an alternative to plain flour, mix 2 tsp flour to a paste with 2 tsp Dijon mustard.

Roast chicken stock

While you are clearing up, put the chicken carcass (together with neck, giblets and backbone, if reserved) in a saucepan with a sliced onion, carrot and bay leaf and barely cover with cold water. Add parsley stalks and celery, if you have them. Simmer for an hour or so, then strain and chill overnight. The following day, pour the stock into ice-cream or ice cube trays and freeze. The next time you roast a chicken, you will have some light stock to add flavour to the juices.

This is an edited extract from The Cook’s Companion 30th Anniversary Edition by Stephanie Alexander. Published by Penguin Random House (RRP $130).