Chef Tips: 5 Ways to Prepare Roast Chicken

To prepare roast chicken yourself and properly, here are some ideas for cooking it without any hassle. Stuffed with lemon, cooked in a toad for express cooking, at low temperature for tender flesh, with softened butter or satay for peanut aromas, the chefs’ recipes are here.

Roasted chicken in toad with oil by Pierre Augé

At the head of the restaurant “La Maison de Petit Pierre” in Béziers and Top Chef 2014 title holder, Pierre Augé prepares chicken in a toad. A technique that consists of cooking the poultry without its carcass. To do this (and to make it simpler), “ask the butcher to empty the chicken of its carcass. The poultry will then be flat, a detail that will change everything!” Without bones or volume, the chicken’s skin will become particularly crispy, and above all, “in 15 to 20 minutes, the chicken is cooked. Brush it with olive oil or butter, your choice, aromatic herbs (such as thyme), a clove of garlic and a few onions. Place the chicken in the dish, skin side up so that it crisps, then leave it to cook in the oven at a high temperature (240°C), for 20 minutes.”

Roast chicken with softened butter by Thomas Prod’homme

For Thomas Prod’homme, chef of the Baumanière 1850 (1 star) at the Hôtel du Strato in Courchevel, “small, simple things” are essential. In the manner of a classic preparation, “prepare a mixture of softened butter and dried thyme flowers. Mix the two ingredients with salt and pepper, then brush the mixture on the chicken. At the bottom of the dish, add chopped shallots, garlic in its skin (keeping its skin) and chicken stock. Cook the chicken for 45 minutes in the oven and you will obtain a nice regularity in the crispiness of the skin!”

Calum Franklin’s Lemon Stuffed Roast Chicken

Calum Franklin, the renowned British chef also nicknamed “King of the Pie” opened his first English brasserie Public House in Paris this year. His advice for a fresh chicken with tangy notes: “Stuff the inside of the chicken with half lemons and fresh thyme before roasting it. The poultry will be fragrant at the end of cooking”, without needing to remove the garnish, everything is edible.

Jean-Philippe Perol’s Low Temperature Roast Chicken

At the Marguerite 1606 restaurant where he cooks (at the Domaine Reine Margot Paris Issy – MGallery Collection), chef Jean-Philippe Perol cooks chicken at a low temperature (150°C), “so as not to dry out the flesh”. After a good hour of cooking, garnished with a few cloves of garlic in their skin, sprigs of thyme and lemon, you will serve a delicious poultry.

Charles Boixel’s roast chicken with satay

At the head of his first French bistro restaurant in Clichy, Le Café César, Charles Boixel adds satay to the chicken. “It goes very well and brings peanut aromas to the poultry. Mix neutral oil (so as not to disturb the flavors) with the satay, brush the poultry with it and let it roast in the oven. The notes between the spicy and the peanut will make the preparation addictive!”