Julia wrote a post about learning to cook and the fact that she has never made a roast chicken and it is something she really wants to try. I immediately thought of my brother Matthews recipe for Army Chicken. So named because in the army it is something that is really easy to cook.
So, I decided to make it for us and blog the process.
Ingredients:
- 1 x whole chicken (no gibblets)
- 1 x 1kg bag of course (kashering) salt
Items you will need:
- Roasting pan
- Heavy duty tinfoil
Turn your oven onto 180°C.
Take your tinfoil and pull out a piece about 60cm long. Fold the tinfoil in half and half again so you have a long thin oblong of tinfoil. Curve the tinfoil around so that it makes a circle slightly bigger than your chicken. Place it in the middle of the roasting pan.
Open the bag of salt by cutting the tip of one corner off so that it is easy to pour. Very slowly pour the sat around the outside of the foil ring. Make sure that the salt doesnt go inside the ring. Pouring slowly helps to guide the salt in the right place. Flatten the salt so that it is spread evenly around the foil.
Place the chicken inside the foil circle. Now here is the really easy part… do not add any spices not even salt or pepper. I repeat, do NOT add any spices.
Place the roasting pan in the oven for between 45 min and an hour depending on the size of the chicken.
Remove the pan from the oven and leave for 10 minutes to settle.
We added a few potatoes to the pan but usually we do it without them.
This chicken turns out to be tasty and juicy despite not having any spices added. Also, if you look at the picture above you can see that the salt has turned a slightly brown colour. That is all the fat that has run out of the chicken and been locked away in the salt. So not only tasty and juicy but healthy too.
Serve with rice and vegetables and most of all, enjoy!