“When chicken is cooked on a low heat, the skin doesn’t go crispy, but on the other hand the meat is fantastic – even turkey cooked like this becomes moist, gamey and fantastic in flavour, instead of over-worked. It’s very important that you leave it to rest afterwards for almost as much time as it took to cook – it’s meant to be served lukewarm. The chicken I’m using – with head and feet still attached – is an old-fashioned Swedish white leghorn.”
– Johan Widing, farmer, Skåne, Sweden
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken (approx 1.3kg)
250g butter (plus an extra chunk for the chicken)
Mixed root vegetables (Johan uses baby carrots, baby yellow beets and slash-and-burn turnips)
Mixed leaves (Johan uses red kale, rainbow chard, spicy cress and chive flowers)
A couple of sprigs of tarragon, picked
Chervil (optional)
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 150C. Johan doesn’t rub anything on the skin of the chicken, but he suggests stuffing the cavity with some chervil leaves. Place the chicken in a baking tray with a chunk of butter at the bottom. Stick in a heat-proof meat thermometer and roast the bird until the breast meat reaches 65C.
When the chicken is ready, take it out of the oven, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Steam the root vegetables for just a couple of minutes (baby carrots will need less cooking time than the other roots). Rinse in cold water to cool them down.
Place a pan on a low heat and melt the butter, stirring regularly. After about five minutes, the butter will start to foam: stir constantly to prevent it from burning. You can tell the butter is browning because dark golden flecks will appear in the melted butter, which will start to smell nutty and toasty. Once you’re happy with the level of browning, pour the butter into a heatproof bowl and stir it for one or two minutes to cool it down.
Unwrap and carve up the chicken. Arrange the pieces of chicken on each plate with the barely-cooked root veg and the mixed leaves. Pour over the brown butter and garnish the chicken with leaves of tarragon.
Serve.
