Oxford SlowFoodStudent

1 whole chicken----I recommend the ordinary one from Feller's, which you can get for a bit more than £3

Onion, parsley, garlic

Diverse spices----certainly salt and pepper; I tend to use paprika and cayenne pepper and whatever else I have to hand that appeals to me

For equipment you'll need a roasting pan with either a truss or a grate to hold the chicken a few inches above the pan. I recommend a truss, as it makes basting easier. A meat thermometer isn't strictly necessary, but you'll get a better roast if you can check the internal temperature exactly.

Begin by setting your oven to pre-heat. You'll want it at about 150 C, but if your oven is like mine you'll probably have to set it to a higher temperature to get it at the one you want; you'll have to experiment some to find it. When you've got it right the chicken will take about fifteen minutes per pound to roast; this rate tends to produce the nicest texture.

There are two problems in roasting chicken----first, that the breast cooks faster than the thigh and tends to get dried out, and second that the bird doesn't really taste of anything on its own. We can deal with the first before putting it in the oven.

First, therefore, stuff the bird. You can create elaborate stuffings which will be good to eat after roasting, but at a minimum----and this is what I'll usually do, as I'm usually roast a small bird without enough space in it to make enough stuffing to justify the effort----you should open the cavity and put in some salt and a good deal of pepper, a couple of cloves of garlic, some parsley, and an onion, which last you may have to halve or quarter to fit it in.

Now, at the front of the bird, peel the skin slightly away from the flesh----you should be able to get your fingers in a small hole slightly back from the neck to either side of the spine----and put small pads of butter between the skin and the flesh along most of the breasts. This will help to keep the breast moist during the roasting. You could also place some herbs and slivers of garlic in here for flavour, though I don't usually myself with chicken.

After this, lay the bird breast-down in order to season it. You should put quite a lot of all of your spices, including salt and pepper, in a pile on top of the bird----it should be at least a tablespoon of powder----and then, covering your hands with olive oil, rub it evenly across the side of the bird facing you. Then turn the bird breast-up and do the same. Try to get a fairly colourful coating; you'll find that a great deal of spice only flavours the skin a little.

You're now ready to begin the roast. Place the bird on the grate or in the truss in the roasting pan. It is important that it not sit in the pan; if it sits in its own juices it will become soggy. You will also need to do something to protect the breast for much of the roasting in order to prevent its drying out. Escoffier used to cover it in bacon for two-thirds of the roasting, but, while it imparts a nice flavour to the skin and makes a nice snack when you remove it, I've found that I produce a much more moist breast by laying the chicken on its side so that the breast doesn't face the heating element and so that the juices run out from the thighs and legs onto it. You might as well roast some vegetables in the pan under the chicken; they'll take a lot of flavour from the juices that accumulate there from the roasting and taste very nice afterward. Having arranged all this, put the pan in the oven----quite quickly; the oven will lose heat as its open, so you should try and hold it open for as little time as possible.

After about twenty minutes, turn the chicken onto its opposite side and baste it----using either a spoon or a baster, if you have one, take the juices from the roasting pan and pour them over the chicken, trying to run some evenly over the whole bird.

After twenty minutes more, you should turn the chicken so that the breast faces up and baste it again. At this time you should begin to check the internal temperature of the bird, if you have a meat thermometer. The whole chicken needs to reach 70 C to be cooked through; in practice, you should check the deepest part of the thigh, which cooks the most slowly. It will probably be at about 55 degrees at this point, which means that you have about twenty minutes more. If you don't have a thermometer, you're forced to rely on the rule of fifteen or twenty minutes per pound, depending on how hot you believe your oven to be, and checking when the juice runs clear when the bird is stuck. You'll probably overcook the chicken a bit, but it beats having it pink.

If you do have a thermometer, check every ten minutes or so----remember, you don't want to cool your oven by opening it unnecessarily----until it reaches about 67 C. The chicken will increase in temperature slightly after it's been removed from the oven, so you if you leave it in until it actually reaches 70 C it will be slightly overcooked. Make sure you take a few readings when you think it's ready, as you may not have found the coolest point, and it's quite irritating having to put an undercooked piece back under the grill to finish it. Note that other roast, even other birds, have different anatomies and you won't be able to rely on the thigh as indicative of the whole.

Once you think the chicken is ready, take it out at once----leaving it in longer than necessary will dry it out more, giving the breast a worse texture. You should let it rest for about ten minutes, especially if you've taken it out slightly before it reaches 70 C.

During this time, you can make a gravy----if you're unambitious, simply pour out the fat from the roasting tray into a saucepan, heat it, melt a few tablespoons of butter into this, and then add a bit of flour and heat it for a while in order to fry the flour and remove its raw taste.

I would also recommend doing a flambée; indeed, I'll tend to do one for any roast at all. It's very easy, it crisps the skin slightly and adds a bit of sweet flavour, and, most importantly, it tends it impress the hell out of one's guests. Take a generous shot of some spirit, warm it slightly in a saucepan, and then pour, making absolutely sure that everyone is watching, it over the bird and quickly apply a lit match. You should get a nice blue flame for about ten seconds.

Having done whatever you're going to to finesse the roast after removing it from the oven, nothing remains but to carve it. This is easier to demonstrate than to explain, but you should be able to pick it up by trial and error. What you're trying to do is, with a large knife, to cut through the flesh between the thigh and the pelvis, and then to dislocate and cut through the joint. Then, to remove the breast, cut straight down along the spine until you reach bone, and then angle your knife away from the centre to finish cutting. It's fairly easy to work out how to remove the wings.

Well, there you are! Enjoy.