A crisp yet succulent golden roasted ‘stuffed’ chicken is my favourite bit of Christmas lunch (or yes you could also choose turkey).

The stuffing must be tender, moist and beautifully flavoured and can be placed into the cavity, rolled into small foil parcels or gently pushed in over the breast – underneath the skin. It sounds easy and yes it is once you know the golden tips….. a little tender loving care and plenty of flavoursome bits added to the basic mixture produces a stuffing with a difference!

But first you need to start with a good chicken – buy the best you can – I mean a free range, if not organic bird or you might like it to be corn fed chicken as well. Also produced ‘chemically free’ makes a world of difference to the flavour and texture (yes sadly standard chicken is washed in a chlorine solution). Your specialty poultry shop and even the supermarket will have a selection: chat with the poultry man, the butcher or read the label at the supermarket – the quality in the first instance is really important.

Next the stuffing: I mostly use  bread (can be a couple of days old) and choose either a great sour dough or grainy favourite. This can even be your favourite gluten free bread. The beginning is always a sauté of lovely basics like onion or spring onion, ginger, garlic, carrots and keep the frypan on low until the vegies are sweet and very lightly golden. I then like a selection of finely chopped fresh herbs, maybe roasted nuts, maybe diced preserved lemon or plenty of fresh grated lemon or orange rind and season well with plenty of sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper. To my way of thinking the stuffing could be eaten  alone….. it needs to be that tasty.  I always pick up a handful of the stuffing and mould it in my hands first – it should ‘mould’ this tells me it will not be dry and not too wet.

Here are my 10 tips on a great roast chicken and just to help you along a little more 2 great recipes.

1. Buy the best quality chicken you can afford.

2.Remove from all packaging, wash under cold water and dry well with paper towel

3.Trim and discard the wing tips (keep for the flavour for the gravy) and tuck the wings under the bird.

4. Make the stuffing – taste for seasoning!

5.Press the stuffing into the cavity and/or gently using your delicate touch under the skin too. Using skewers secure the opening and then tie the legs, crossing over with some string.

6.Rub the whole chicken with a little olive oil or butter

7.Place into the baking dish, but on a rack is best or onto a bed of chunky vegetables BREAST side down.

8.Roast for about 30 minutes before turning over and roasting for the remaining time.  Baste as desired. A size 18 chicken will take about 1 hour 15 minutes (give or take)

9.Test if cooked (a thin skewer inserted into the thigh) and the juices will run clear

10.STAND for at least 10 minutes before carving – this is when you make the home made gravy (now that’s a whole other story)…. Maybe we’ll chat about that next time?

Here are two great recipes from the Peter McInness website.

Roast chicken with macadamia, almond and orange stuffing

Macadamia & Herb Filled Chicken

I’ll be on TVSN on Wednesday 9th December at 1:30 pm and Sunday 13th December at 1:30 pm so tune in!