One of the Most Famous Recipes in the World yet everyone has their version of the Roast Chicken! Today I present to you Grandma Sandra’s Recipe, that is my paternal grandma, of her Roast Chicken to celebrate #roastchickenday which this year falls on October 2nd! The theme is: Book a Grandma and cook with her!
I participated in this event involving numerous food bloggers, in fact the apron you will see in the video recipe (which you can find below) and in the photos of the roast chicken is not my official apron, but rather the one received from the organizers of this social event that features Chicken!
So I rushed to her, picked her up in the car, and we came back here, to my kitchen, to prepare together, but she ended up doing everything, of course, her Roast Chicken! Discover her recipe, watch the video recipe and smile with us! Sorry in advance if some words in our Marchigiano dialect won’t be very clear, at some point we just let go!
The Recipe of my Grandma Sandra is very simple, indeed I must admit I expected it to be more complicated, very few ingredients, all affordable, and a chicken not too big, perfect as in my case for a dinner for two. Poor grandma, she cooked it and my partner and I ate it!
If you want to participate in this social event, visit your grandma, make a reel or a video, or a photo with her while preparing the Roast Chicken and share it on your social profiles with the hashtags #roastchickenday #bookagrandma
Below I’ll leave you also other recipes you can prepare with chicken or rather with some of its parts, like the thighs, the drumsticks, the breast, and the minced meat. There’s something for everyone! Every link is clickable and will take you directly to the recipe you choose to read!
I remind you then that I’m waiting for you every morning in the group and the Facebook fan page of Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day!
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Affordable
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons, Christmas
- Energy 441.63 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 1.21 (g) of which sugars 0.08 (g)
- Proteins 47.73 (g)
- Fat 26.53 (g) of which saturated 8.88 (g)of which unsaturated 17.40 (g)
- Fibers 0.22 (g)
- Sodium 350.84 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 250 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for a Roast Chicken Recipe
- 1 chicken (whole and not too big)
- 5 cloves garlic
- 5 sprigs rosemary
- Half lemon
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- 1 glass white wine
Tools for Preparing Grandma Sandra’s Roast Chicken Recipe
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Scissors
- 1 Fork
- 1 Knife
- 1 Oven
- 1 Baking Pan
- 10 Toothpicks
- 3 Parchment Paper
- 1 Plate
Disclaimer before the Recipe: working in the kitchen with my grandma Sandra is wonderful, I often prepare her recipes (you can find all those already published on the blog) and I am always amazed at how simple they are to prepare, without too many frills and too many ingredients, precisely that simplicity that has always characterized Italian Cuisine in the World.
Moreover, I would add the peasant cuisine, resources were few, money was scarce, and everything one had was used for living. Thus, when my grandma, during breaks in the recording, shared little memories from her childhood, it moved me.
She was a lively girl, running through fields and behind the chickens, playing pranks and being capricious. She told me about a time when she sat in the pantry because she was thirsty and found some eggs. She broke and ate three raw from a small hole, and broke the others while playing, but her grandma noticed. She told her not to do it, and being so kind, she didn’t tell her mom who would have scolded her.
Another time, while running in the chicken coop, she scared the chickens and everyone was running after these poor frightened creatures. Thinking back to the pranks we played on her as kids makes me smile, we were children playing in the street like she did in the fields. With a ball, a doll, and jump rope, they were beautiful childhoods, full of laughter and colors, smiles and affection.
Steps for Grandma’s Roast Chicken Recipe
First thing to do: choose a chicken, my grandma advises to check it well top and bottom, ensuring it has the skin and is intact in all parts. Mine weighed about a little over a kilogram (2.2 pounds). It will be sufficient for two people.
Then take some garlic cloves, rosemary sprigs, fresh lemon, salt, and pepper, and especially parchment paper not in sheets (my grandma almost scolded me, but I find it very convenient) but in a roll because for cooking we will make a parchment paper package around the chicken.
Then we will need a cutting board, a baking pan, and the oven preheated to 338 – 356°F. Then we will explain how to make the chicken turn a nice golden color towards the end of cooking. With that nice crispy skin like rotisserie to understand.
Last but not least Grandma’s advice: do not use oil, lard, or bacon for cooking roast chicken, as my grandma says the meat will be boiled rather than crispy.
Finished the disclaimers and tips let’s move on to the actual recipe, for any doubts about steps write to me or watch the video recipe under the first photo of the Roast Chicken and don’t forget to Celebrate October 2nd on #roastchickenday by preparing this dish with your grandmas or grandpas.
Take the chicken and place it on a plate. Cut the tips of the wings and the tail. Finally, with poultry scissors, open the chicken‘s rib cage at the breast to divide it in two. In the video recipe, this step is done by my grandma and is very clear, so you can also understand how to do it.
Now cut a nice piece of lemon and break up the rosemary sprigs. Pour the white wine into a glass, which we will use for the second step of this recipe. Meanwhile, prepare the garlic cloves, remove their skins, and if they are very large, cut them in half.
Place a piece of garlic with a sprig of rosemary under both wings, then with the tip of the knife, make two holes at the thighs and insert a piece of garlic and rosemary. If this step is unclear it is well visible in the video recipe. Place the other pieces of rosemary here and there over the chicken’s surface. So that everything can be well flavored.
We are then ready to sprinkle with salt and pepper, on both sides, make sure, and drizzle with lemon juice. The chicken is therefore well seasoned and ready for the first phase of cooking. Now we will make a nice package with parchment paper and toothpicks, grandma assures that with this trick, the oven will not get dirty at all!
Let’s take a nice baking pan, place the parchment paper first, cutting it afterwards, as we need to understand how much paper is necessary to wrap the chicken in a package. Also prepare the toothpicks, we will need about ten to close the package. First, close the paper over the chicken and cut the excess, then secure the sides with the toothpicks as Sandra expertly shows in the video. Practically a kind of sewing with the toothpicks.
Bake the chicken at 338°F for about an hour. Never raise the temperature, Sandra in the video for this recipe was very clear, you won’t finish sooner but will only have a chicken that is too cooked outside and raw inside.
After this time, we will proceed with the second part of the recipe. That is, taking out the chicken, opening the parchment paper and cutting away the excess part. With a spoon and a bowl, we will remove the liquid released by the meat during cooking. This step is essential if we do not want a boiled chicken instead of roasted.
Now drizzle with the white wine we reserved and bake the roast chicken again for another 45 minutes at 356 – 374°F. I know it may seem counter-intuitive to remove the cooking water and then drizzle with white wine but trust grandma who has roasted thousands of chickens and always done it this way. The white wine evaporates with the heat while that fat won’t go away from the pan and will burn, making the oven stink.
After this second period, we can turn the chicken to the other side, switch to grill mode and let it cook for another 20 – 30 minutes approximately, maintaining the same temperature of 356 – 374°F.
Now the chicken is finally ready. Choose a nice serving plate, prepare some lemon for those who prefer to add more at the end, and plate the roast chicken with grandma’s recipe!
Serve the oven-roasted chicken and enjoy your meal everyone!!!
Almost forgot: don’t you want grandma Sandrina’s rosemary potatoes recipe? You can read it of course on my blog!
It’s the dish of family memories, it’s the Sunday dish for 74% of Italians, it’s one of the excellences of our cuisine, whether prepared with the grandma’s recipe, cooked at the rotisserie or in the countless gourmet versions, it is among the most loved dishes by Italians and beyond.
According to surveys, many declare eating it at least once a month, then it moves to once a week and young people even twice! Iconic dish, historic dish and of tradition, dish with potatoes is timeless!
This year, thanks to W Il Pollo, I also celebrate Roast Chicken Day! An initiative no brand, that is not sponsored by brands, food companies and does not promote the sale of any product but rather aims to enhance dishes of Italian cuisine like Roast Chicken!
W Il Pollo is the information campaign dedicated to the millions of Italians passionate about chicken, supported by Unione Nazionale Filiere Agroalimentari della Carni e delle Uova, which protects and promotes the Italian agri-food chains that represent 90% of the entire national poultry chain.
Since 2014 the campaign has lived on the blog Vivailpollo answering questions and doubts with a simple language accessible to everyone, informing about one of the symbolic products of Made in Italy par excellence.
Tips
Many tips during the text of the recipe you will have found many, surely a lot, grandma was very precise and attentive in explaining to me and therefore to you her recipe for the infallible roast chicken.
If you have questions or doubts, you can write them in the comments, I will ask grandma so she can respond to you directly.
