Local Food and Wine writer, Bon Vivant  explains how to cook the perfect Kentish Ranger roast chicken.

A perfectly roasted chicken is a thing of beauty. People have written books on the subject, restaurants have become legendary for their own take on the classic dish and here in Kent we are in an exceptional position to lead the culinary world with our basic ingredient, the Kentish Ranger Chicken.

Saving money on cheap, battery farmed chickens is, in my view, a false economy. The reason being that the bones of the bird are soft and brittle, the skin is thin and easily torn and limits what you can do by way of preparation and most depressingly of all, the bird will have so little taste that you cannot use the leftovers, bones and carcass to make more delicious dishes as there is simply no flavour left after the initial cooking.

Choose a Kentish Ranger and the story is quite different..

Whatever plump bird you settle on the next problem is this: How do you cook the legs and wings properly without overcooking the breast?

Ideally the breast or blanc as the French call it, should be just cooked, moist and melt in the mouth, while the meat on the legs and wings should be falling off the bone and the skin crispy.

There are many methods which give excellent results for roast chicken but here are two that I think deserve a wider following:

To prepare the chicken for the oven, take whatever mixture of herbs that pleases you, some sea salt, black pepper and finely chopped garlic and combine in a pestle and mortar.

Using your hands, or a mixer if you can be bothered to wash up all the component parts afterwards, combine this herby mixture with plenty of unsalted butter.

The skin of a quality chicken will be easy to separate from the bird and this herb butter should be placed between the skin and the flesh.. Season the cavity of the chicken with salt and a half lemon and you are ready to start cooking.

 
The first method is based on a the traditional method of cooking Poulet de Bresse but using cling film instead of a pig’s bladder. Wrap the chicken tightly in several layers of cling film, forming a watertight cocoon around the bird.

Follow this with a tight covering of kitchen foil and then roast it in as low a temperature as you dare for as long as you dare. I usually cook this at 120C for three hours.

When it is cooked, snip off the end of the cocoon and let the juices flow into a saucepan for your sauce and glaze. Let the bird rest for 10 minutes. Take a ladleful of the juices and add to a hot frying pan along with a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. When the mixture starts to caramelise, add your chicken turn it over and baste in the sticky glaze until the whole bird is a delicious golden brown.

Foe the sauce, take the rest of the juices, a finely chopped shallot, a dash of white wine and bring to the boil and reduce a little, season with salt, pepper and a little vinegar if needed. Whisk in a little cold butter to the mixture and a few drops of lemon juice just at the end. This should produce the most wonderful, rich sauce.

Another and somewhat simpler way is to begin to cook your chicken as you usually would. Only, thirty minutes into the cooking, remove the bird from the oven and with a sharp knife remove the breasts whole and set aside, wrapped in kitchen foil.

Turn the chicken over and season again and return to the oven until it reaches all its crispy potential. Ten minutes before the end of cooking, submerge the breasts into the buttery, intense liquid in the bottom of the pan to complete their cooking. When you come to serve, you will find that the legs and wings are thoroughly cooked and the breast is gently poached and melts in the mouth.

The gentle cooking of the breast, on the bone is really the secret behind successful game cooking also. With most game birds where there is a danger that the meat can dry out, it is good to separate the legs from the rest of the bird.

With pigeons, partridge and pheasant, try browning the well seasoned legs in a little oil and then poaching in stock that is just below boiling. The breasts can then be roasted on the crown so that they do not shrink. When the season returns, I will examine this in more detail.

Lastly, the asparagus season is upon us, what better accompaniment to your perfectly roasted chicken than some deliciously dark green spears of Kent’s own grown.

Here’s a tip: once you have blanched your asparagus in boiling, salted water, refresh them immediately in ice cold water. This will restore, even enhance their green colour and stop them going brown. Turn the spears over in a pan with a little butter and a splash of water to reheat when you are ready to eat them. Yummy!

Kentish Ranger chickens are available from:-

W.T. MCKEEVER
Waterham Farm,

Hernhill
Free Range Chickens – Kentish Ranger
Slaughtered on the farm
or
The Goods Shed

Station Road West
Canterbury
CT2 8AN
01227 459 153
MARKET OPENS
Tuesday to Saturday
9 am — 7 pm
Sunday
10 am — 4 pm
Closed Monday

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