Making more of your meal: Roast chicken

What’s in your food and how can you eat better? In this series, we look at some staple meals, considering what’s good for you and what’s maybe not – and how you can turn them into dishes that are healthier, better for the planet and alive with flavour.

Chicken is a staple in almost every British kitchen, and roast chicken is a ubiquitous Sunday lunch. But over the decades, what was once a weekly family treat, has morphed into an obsession.

In the UK, over a billion chickens a year are consumed, and as we feast endlessly on ‘cheap chicken’, significant damage is being done to the environment, not to mention the lives of the chickens themselves. The rivers Wye, Lugg and Usk are currently at risk due to the pollution caused by the industrial chicken farming along the spread of this territory, and more broadly, chicken farms have been spreading across the country, leaving, for the most part, a trail of poor practice.

So, what can we do to both preserve the value of the chicken we enjoy, whilst also giving them a decent life, even if it’s a short one? Over the years, standards for chickens have improved, but there is still a very long way to go. If you care about the welfare of chickens, which we all should, take some time to find out about the varying standards. For the most part, broiler chickens live short and pretty miserable lives – over 90% of broiler chickens are from intensive systems where they are bred to grow quickly (often suffering from this), given no access to the outdoors and killed within 35 days.

Because of this and because free range systems, while better, still aren’t great, organic is the best option if your budget allows. Organic chickens have a slightly longer – and definitely a better – life. You can also buy direct from farmers who are prioritising animal welfare and agroecological farming practices – while they may not have gone down the organic certification route, they may still be producing top quality chicken from birds that have led better lives. Find a poultry producer or a butcher that values smaller scale chicken production for what’s likely to be a much tastier chicken.

Price

There is usually a significant price difference between basic grade supermarket chickens and high-welfare sustainably produced birds. But it’s worth bearing in mind that you’ll generally be buying a chicken that is more nutritious and leaner, if you opt for slower-grown varieties that have had an active outdoor life.

Writing for the SFT, Joanna Blythman also points out that making full use of the whole bird means that the cost isn’t always as steep as we might assume:

“As I write, we’re on Day Four of eating up a two-kilo chicken. Day One, we ate the crispy skin – glorious! – the wings, drumsticks, thighs, ‘oysters’, a sliver of breast, and the caramelised juices from the roasting pan along with roast potatoes and vegetables. Day Two was time to make Caesar Salad with the leftover breast, just add croutons, cos lettuce and an easy dressing made with mayonnaise, parmesan and a few anchovy fillets. Day Three, I boiled the carcase for stock. Day Four, with the addition of leek, carrot, celery, mushy tomatoes, broccoli stems and a handful of barley, I have a pot of soup that will serve eight people… When I do the final calculation, I have got six main course portions and eight starters/lunches from it, an economical proposition by any standard.”

Roast chicken

If you cook a roast chicken regularly, you’re likely to have your own special recipe for it. But for those who are new to cooking a roast chicken, there is a vast array of cooking columns and videos on the best way to cook a chicken. Here’s a few suggestions on the best ones we’ve come across:

• Classic roast chicken & gravy recipe | Good Food
• Easy roast chicken recipe | Jamie Oliver
• Chicken with Roasted Lemons, Red Onion, Thyme and Garlic recipe | Delia Smith
• Epic tarragon roast chicken | Julius Roberts

Chicken stock

Stretch your chicken (and money) further by using the carcase to make a delicious and versatile stock. This Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe makes a litre to a litre and a half.

• 1 cooked chicken carcase
• The neck and giblets from the chicken, but not the liver
• 1-2 onions, roughly chopped
• 1-2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• 3-4 celery sticks, roughly chopped
• ½ a large leek, roughly chopped
• A few chunks of peeled celeriac or parsnip (optional)
• 2 bay leaves
• A few black peppercorns
• 1 sprig thyme (optional)
• A few parsley stalks (optional)

1. Use your fingers and a small, sharp knife to strip the chicken of any remaining good meat – set this aside for soup or sandwiches.
2. Tear the carcase into fairly small pieces and cram them, along with any skin, bones, fat, jelly or burnt bits from the roasting tin, into a saucepan that will take them snugly. If you have the fresh giblets, add these too, (minus the liver, which can make the stock bitter).
3. Add the vegetables and herbs, packing them in as snugly as you can so that you need no more than 1.5 litres of cold water just to cover everything.
4. Bring the pan to a simmer and let it cook, uncovered, for at least three hours and up to five. Top up the water once or twice, as necessary.
5. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, leave it to cool, then chill. A layer of fat will solidify on the top, which you can scrape off, but it’s not essential to do so.

 

For more about choosing healthy and sustainable chicken, we recommend reading Joanna Blythman’s article, Do chickens deserve better?