Spit Roast Chicken 'French Style' with Buttered Parsley Arborio

I've been meaning to blog about the recipe for some time, what is for me probably my absolute most favourite way of cooking a chicken. To be honest, I have blogged about it before, but I never included enough detail last time to let anyone else recreate it in this style - here's hoping I can do better this time.

If I'm totally honest it's not 100% my recipe - though that said I've never actually seen any other recipe for it, or even like it really. It was inspired by a meal I had in a French bistro in Albert back in the Summer of 2007, and I was so struck by it that when I returned to the UK I had to try and recreate it - so this is my version of what I had then.

The core of the recipe is cooking the chicken relatively hot and fast on a spit over a roasting pan, and then using what drips into that pan during the cooking time to make a jus (has to be a jus, it is a French recipe after all) to serve with the meat. To me it's also critical that it's served with arborio rice which has been cooked till light and fluffy, lightly buttered and mixed with plenty of chopped parsley.

The Recipe

First off, the chicken. Doesn't really matter how large, but what is important is that you trim off any extraneous fat, and make sure that plenty of air can get blown into the birds cavity by trimming around that as well. I do this on the spit attachment in my oven, which doesn't turn, but as it's a fan oven air is blown all through and over the bird giving something like a spit effect. Once it's trimmed and on the spit it needs a tablespoon or so of olive oil rubbed all over it, and a generous seasoning with salt & pepper inside and out.

Preparing the bird for the oven

Now get it into an oven, and make sure there's that tray underneath to catch the juices. If you don't have a spit you can try and cook it on a grill with a tray underneath, but the key is still to try and make sure that air can flow freely all around the bird.

In the oven, ready to roast

I roast it in a 180ºC fan oven for about 15 mins per pound - might take a little longer/shorter in yours, if in doubt go a little over as ever with chicken, provided you let it rest properly it should be fine. One other little note - try and get the bird to hang downwards for the longest part of the cooking process. Basically you want the breasts to be facing down so that juices flow back into them, especially during the rest.

One cooked chicken, ready to get the tray out for gravy, ermm, jus

Once the cooking time is up you can remove the tray from the oven, which should now be full of crispy stuff and fat. The bird can stay in the oven as it cool,s provided you leavethe door ajar. You can tip most of the fat away from the tray, what we're after is the crispy stuff. The trick now is to get that tray onto the stove, add some stock, and transform it into a wonderful chickeny sauce.

Making the jus

Now for the rice - which you'll need to get started before the jus thing above. Using arborio is also a bit odd I know, but bear with me, it's very tasty. You need to cook it like long grain rice, so for me that means washing it thoroughly first in cold water, then boiling it in plenty of well salted water for about 15 minutes till tender, and then washing it again when it's ready with fresh boiling water from the kettle. Now leave to stand for a minute or so with the lid on to drain, back into the pan (once you've thrown away the any remaining water) and add a few dollops of butter and plenty of chopped fresh parsley and leave that to melt in.

Serving the bird - legs only!

I've always preferred legs, so this recipe is perfect for me as you only serve the legs, which leaves the breasts for sandwiches another day or loads of other tempting leftover treats. This time around I also did this with vichy carrots (well, a sort of vichy carrots anyhow) which worked really well I'm happy to say. When I had it in Albert it just served as chicken, rice and jus, but the carrots worked so well they'll probably become part of the dish for me I think.

The finished dish

Spit Roast Rabbit

Was off looking for beef the other day, no surprise there, but couldn't find what I was after and spotted some good looking rabbits for sale so went for one of those instead. Talk about from one extreme to the other!

Been meaning to try a rabbit for ages, and had the idea that it might work out well marinated with lots of herbs, wrapped in fatty bacon and spit roasted, so that's what I did. Took loads of fresh marjoram from the garden, some garlic, plenty of oil and left it for about three hours or so in the fridge.


The Rabbit and ingredients


Ready to go in the fridge

Rabbit can be a notoriously dry meat, so I needed to wrap it in plenty of bacon in order to keep it moist on the spit. It was well seasoned first, and then loads of streaky went round secured with toothpicks.


Wrapped and ready for roasting

Then into a hotish oven for about 45 minutes. Came our rather well I reckon.


Crispy baconed rabbit!

With it I prepared a Tian of potatoes, another first, which is basically thinly sliced potatoes cooked in olive oil in a sort of cake. In the meantime B had prepared a leek and fennel mousse with a red pepper sauce, inspired by the Exe Shed restaurant in Exeter, which we had with toasted tortillas as a starter.


The leek & fennel mousse starter


The finished rabbit with the tian of potatoes

End result? Well, the starter was the star in the end, but you probably guessed that from the pictures. Yes it did taste as good as it looked! Rabbit was very tasty but still a bit dry - should have added even more bacon to the back legs perhaps, or maybe I just cooked it too long and too hot. The bacon was to die for, can't beat good bacon well crisped I reckon, but the potatoes were disappointing as well - far too oily. I did follow the recipe for them in their case, something I only tend to do when trying something very new, but wished in the end I'd trusted by own judgement rather than the book.

I guess you can't win them all, but always fun trying new things. Rabbit is usually braised, but I reckon I can pull this off with a bit more practice, and the left over meat has gone into making a fabulous sauce for pasta - nothing is ever wasted round here!

Meanwhile back to today, and another roast. Lamb with new potatoes from the village, a fresh mint sauce made with our own mint and some minted broad bean puree with our broad beans. At least that's the plan. Now where am I going to find a good local piece of lamb on a Sunday morning ...

Spit-roast shoulder of lamb, stuffed with soft cheese and tomato

Been meaning to try another spit-roast lamb, but this time decided to go for shoulder as the leg ended up a little dry. I tend to prefer shoulder anyhow - personally I think it has a better flavour.

I bought one already rolled, but undid it and coated the inside with first a layer of soft herby cheese from Cornwall and then some tomato sauce - basically just a tin of tomatoes I'd cooked down to a thick paste and then flavoured with Oregano. Why this combination? Well, the cheese we'd bought we didn't reckon was too great by itself, but I thought it would work out great in a finished dish.


Lamb rolled out with soft cheese ...



... and now with the herby tomato sauce added as well


The whole thing was rolled back up again and then into the oven on the spit - hot for 20 minutes to get it going and then low for another hour and half or so as I like my lamb well done. Popped a tray underneath so catch the juices for gravy.


Ready to go into the oven


And the result? Well it did get a little overdone on the outside - almost charcoal in some places! - but that was to be expected given the cheesy mixture going everywhere.


A little dark perhaps!


Good flavour overall either way, and it wasn't actually burnt, just dark. B liked it better than me to be honest - personally I thought you lost too much of the lamb itself with all the other strong flavours, but I wouldn't kick it out of bed, so to speak.


The finished dish - and in the sun for once!


The runner beans are our own (with a little help from a colleague - a mole problem, don't ask) and the potatoes were from my Dad. They were leftovers cold in the fridge which I threw in the oven once the meat had come out. Turned into mini roasties with half the hassle, so that's worth noting all by itself.

And the lamb leftovers? Well they're down stairs at the moment - lamb has been minced up and fried off to give it some sweet caramelisation, some more tinned tomato and cheese has gone in, as well as some red onion, garlic, white wine and rosemary and it's about to be dinner with some pasta (and probably lunch tomorrow as well). Actually it's about to be dinner for several nights in a row - I swear I've made enough for about 10 people at least!