Lemon Roast Chicken | Chicken Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What does putting a lemon in a chicken do? ›

The benefits of the hot steaming lemon going into the chicken are very obvious as the meat tastes amazing, and the chicken cooks slightly quicker because of it. Rub the chicken inside and out with a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper.

What temperature is best for roasting chicken? Preheat the oven to 240°C/475°F/gas 9, then as soon as you put your chicken in the oven, reduce the heat to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.

Weigh your chicken and calculate the cooking time according to the guide below. Sit the bird in a roasting tin slightly larger than the chicken, and don't cover it with foil or you won't achieve a crisp skin. Basting your chicken during cooking will help keep the meat moist.

Like pickling, smoking, and curing, the practice of rinsing chicken with lemon juice probably started out as a way to neutralize any off-aromas in the meat and cut down on bacteria.

The reason you do not want to marinate chicken for longer than 4 hours is that the acidic ingredients in the marinade (like vinegar, wine, or lemon juice) will begin to break down the structure of the meat too much and it will start to “cook” before ever touching a heat source.

Roast the Chicken

If you are not roasting any vegetables with the chicken, it's a good idea to add about 1/2 cup of water to the pan to prevent the drippings from burning. Place the chicken on the rack breast side up, slide the pan into the oven, and roast it uncovered for about 60 to 70 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. Pour water into the bottom of the roasting tin, filling it about 1-2cm deep. Cover the chicken with foil and roast for 1 hr. Remove the foil and continue to roast the chicken for a further 20-30 mins until the skin is golden, the chicken is cooked and all the juices run clear.

Crispy skin is a result of dry cooking, like roasting/baking, grilling, or frying. Covering a chicken with foil will turn dry cooking into moist cooking - you're not really baking, anymore, you're braising.

Gordon's cooking method for the chicken—trussing it, elevating with a grate, and placing it in the center of the oven—helps ensure even heat circulation for even cooking.

It's lovely served with steamed green broccoli and peas – delicious. You can make a quick one by skimming off the fat in the roasting tray, then placing the tray on the hob.

Is it better to bake chicken in glass or metal? ›

Because glass is an insulator, rather than a conductor, it's slow to heat but, once hot, retains that heat for longer. This can result in uneven baking: By the time the interior is baked through, the exterior is often overcooked, dry, or dark.

Always let your bird come to room temperature, by leaving it outside of the fridge, covered, for an hour before cooking it. Why? Because your bird will cook unevenly otherwise. Many recipes suggest you rinse your bird before roasting it, but for most store-bought chickens this step isn't necessary.

You'll need a pan in which to roast the chicken. A roasting pan with a rack is nice, particularly one with upright handles, which is easy to move around in the oven. But a rimmed sheet pan or oven-proof skillet (like cast-iron) works just as well.

Lemon juice is a great meat tenderizer; the acidity gently breaks down the protein fibers in meat, according to Science Learning Hub. That leaves it scrumptiously fork-tender. “You can simply coat a piece of meat with lemon juice for at least one hour before cooking to improve tenderness,” Rifkin says.

Lemon, herbs, onions, and garlic too are all aromatics that infuse into the chicken as it cooks giving it a lovely flavor. It doesn't absorb the flavors enough to call it a lemon chicken, but gives the chicken some flavor depth and acts as an enhancement.

How lemon juice tenderises the meat. An acid-containing marinade not only helps to flavour meat; it also helps to tenderise it. Acid causes The protein and connective tissue in meat are broken down by acid. At a molecular level, meat proteins have a spiral shape.

Use the lime and its juices to scrub the surface of each individual piece of chicken. This helps to remove the slime and film off the chicken. The salt helps to "exfoliate" as you scrub the limes on the chicken like a "sponge".