Photography: Brett Stevens / Are Media Syndication: The Australian Women's Weekly
This is the original and the best. If I can say that, being the granddaughter of Australian national treasure Margaret Fulton. This roast chicken recipe is one of the most used in my copy of Margaret’s revised The Margaret Fulton Cookbook. She would have liked to have seen the page of the book open on my kitchen benchtop, gathering patina from cooking splatters and spills. It’s no good gathering dust somewhere, she would have said.
If you’re looking for that crispy skin, and something simple that will delight everyone at the table, a perfect Sunday roast or meal to impress the inlaws, this is the roast chicken recipe to cook. This is what Margaret Fulton wrote of cooking a classic roast chicken, and chicken generally, in her most famous cookbook.
“My mother’s Sunday dinner was invariably one of two things – rare roast beef or a roast chicken, big and fat and crisp and brown.”
Margaret Fulton
“There were no fussing trimmings and no surprise stuffings, but we used the best china and sat down to dinner in our best Sunday clothes. The whole house took on a special atmosphere. For 18 years this was the cosy pattern of our household.
“It might have continued had not my sister Jean gone to live in Italy, France and other ‘foreign parts’. She returned to live with us when the Second World War broke out and she was now a sophisticate. We soon learned that the French poulet, the Spanish and the Italian pollo, the Indian murgh and the Chinese gai all meant chicken, and chicken began to appear on the Sunday table in completely new guises.
“The plump familiar shape had sometimes a garland of unfamiliar vegetables, sometimes the shape wasn’t there at all. Chicken sauteed the French way, cut up before cooking and served with a creamy sauce, exotic seasonings and a lacing of wine was soon accepted by the whole family for one reason – it tasted so good.
“Something of the old-fashioned flavour of poultry has been lost, which has brought about a new approach to cooking methods. The cook has to put the flavour back into the bird. I like to buy free-range poultry, even better if it is organic. I believe that a bird that has spent time scratching around and pecking the ground will taste as it should and has also had some sort of life. Such a bird you pay extra for, but I would prefer to eat chicken less often and make the meal more special.”
Extract and recipe from The Margaret Fulton Cookbook (Hardie Grant Books)
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 190°C.
Wipe the chicken cavity with a paper towel. Remove excess fat (discard).
Mix about 1 teaspoon salt and pepper, to taste, with the tarragon and butter and place half inside the chicken.
Put the chicken breast side up in a well-greased baking dish and rub remaining butter over exposed surface. Place in oven.
After 20-25 minutes turn the bird on its side and baste with the pan juices. After 20 minutes turn again and baste well.
In 1 hour 5 minutes the chicken will be cooked and a beautiful golden brown all over. Remove from the oven, take chicken from pan and keep in a warm place, lightly covered with foil, while you make the sauce. Keep the pan and any juices.
Add chicken stock to the roasting pan. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to lift off any chicken drippings and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for a few minutes before checking for seasoning, adding salt and freshly ground black pepper if necessary. Strain into a sauce boat and serve seperately. Serve with roast potatoes and green vegetable or a salad.
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