Heston's Roast Chicken
Discussion
Heston followers; brined roast Chicken
How long did you cook it for? I did 1.5kg for 4 hours today, inner temp hit 67*
Looked great when I carved, juices clear etc - but an hour later
The cats shared it & they are okay thank goodness
Looking at the carcass cold, it is very obviously not cooked, but appeared it when hot
Thoughts?
How long did you cook it for? I did 1.5kg for 4 hours today, inner temp hit 67*
Looked great when I carved, juices clear etc - but an hour later
The cats shared it & they are okay thank goodness
Looking at the carcass cold, it is very obviously not cooked, but appeared it when hot
Thoughts?
I would not normally cook it to as little as 67C, but I would not expect that to make me ill. If I were planning g to cook that recipe to that temperature, though, I would want a really fresh chicken and would be very careful to have the brine chilled to 4C before the bird went in it. I would also probe several locations with the meat thermometer.
Nor me, but I know several here have done this successfully 
The chicken was from the Butcher, I followed the instructions to the letter, bar the fact that it had an extra 10 minutes at the hgh temp as the potatoes needed a bt longs
I probed loads of holes, to check it in all depths of meat & to check the juices were clear!
The chicken was from the Butcher, I followed the instructions to the letter, bar the fact that it had an extra 10 minutes at the hgh temp as the potatoes needed a bt longs
I probed loads of holes, to check it in all depths of meat & to check the juices were clear!
This Heston method does have a few potential pitfalls.
First off, unless you know your temperature probe is accurate, it's probably not worth doing it this way in the first place. I've recently upgraded to a much better probe when I found out my original one was just not accurate enough to be useful for this type of cooking.
If it is accurate then ignore how long it takes, just go by the temperature as that's the critical measurement. A large chicken in a really low oven could take 5 hours. A small chicken in a hotter oven could take less than 3 hours.
I can't get my oven below 125°C, so I've got less margin for error than an oven I could regulate to 80 or 90°C.
Where you measure the temperature is the next variable. If you want the breast cooked perfectly and you put the probe in the thickest part of it then it's probable you won't get the thickest part of the leg to the same temperature at the same time. If you aim for 65°C in the breast then the legs may not even get to 55°C.
If you're worried about under-cooked chicken then measure the temperature deep in near the leg joint and wait until it reaches 75°C before taking out of the oven for resting.
The 45 minute rest seems like a long time, but it helps in bringing the thickest parts of the bird to temperature without over-cooking the rest, so don't skip it.
There are a lot of variables involved in this method of cooking and getting one of them slightly wrong can mean parts of the chicken won't reach a 'safe' temperature. If in doubt, just don't do it as there are other ways to cook a chicken which give very good results.
First off, unless you know your temperature probe is accurate, it's probably not worth doing it this way in the first place. I've recently upgraded to a much better probe when I found out my original one was just not accurate enough to be useful for this type of cooking.
If it is accurate then ignore how long it takes, just go by the temperature as that's the critical measurement. A large chicken in a really low oven could take 5 hours. A small chicken in a hotter oven could take less than 3 hours.
I can't get my oven below 125°C, so I've got less margin for error than an oven I could regulate to 80 or 90°C.
Where you measure the temperature is the next variable. If you want the breast cooked perfectly and you put the probe in the thickest part of it then it's probable you won't get the thickest part of the leg to the same temperature at the same time. If you aim for 65°C in the breast then the legs may not even get to 55°C.
If you're worried about under-cooked chicken then measure the temperature deep in near the leg joint and wait until it reaches 75°C before taking out of the oven for resting.
The 45 minute rest seems like a long time, but it helps in bringing the thickest parts of the bird to temperature without over-cooking the rest, so don't skip it.
There are a lot of variables involved in this method of cooking and getting one of them slightly wrong can mean parts of the chicken won't reach a 'safe' temperature. If in doubt, just don't do it as there are other ways to cook a chicken which give very good results.
I tried it out as well, difference being I do have commercial ovens etc so time/accuracy not a problem. Followed the method exactly and it worked okay but not significantly different to blasting on a very high temp and then leaving on low for an hour or so.
Overall I didn't the taste was brilliant, a bit too salty. I will try it again but will brine for less time.
Overall I didn't the taste was brilliant, a bit too salty. I will try it again but will brine for less time.
kers method for soft boiling an egg results in eggs so hard you could play squash with them.PugwasHDJ80 said:
72deg is really the critical point to kill all bacteriums
60-65 is a bit low unless you are 100% happy as to the providence of the bird- and i'd want to have raised, killed it and hung it myself....
After watching countryfile last night with cravens report on chickens, i don't think i would atempt hestons recipe and cooking a chicken at that temp.60-65 is a bit low unless you are 100% happy as to the providence of the bird- and i'd want to have raised, killed it and hung it myself....
cal216610 said:
After watching countryfile last night with cravens report on chickens, i don't think i would atempt hestons recipe and cooking a chicken at that temp.
He reckons " All pathogens (those nasty bugs of which salmonella and campylobacter are just two) are killed if you hold the internal temperature of the turkey [or chicken, I suppose] at 60C for a minimum of 12 minutes"http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2004/dec/11...
I daren't attempt it in my oven since the thermostat isn't accurate. Set the dial at 90C and the actual temperature varies from 60C to 110C. In order to cook the chicken properly, the oven temperature needs to be constant throughout.
Bacteria can double their numbers every 20 minutes: start with 100 organisms and after 4 hours you'll have 204,800 - all having produced toxins which can make you ill even though the organisms themselves might be dead at the end.
Heston's method seems like a massive shag and hassle to me compared with the time-honoured method of rubbing the bird all over with a garlicky herb butter, giving it a 20-minute sizzle in a very hot oven, then turning the temperature down to 160C for as long as it takes to cook.
Bacteria can double their numbers every 20 minutes: start with 100 organisms and after 4 hours you'll have 204,800 - all having produced toxins which can make you ill even though the organisms themselves might be dead at the end.
Heston's method seems like a massive shag and hassle to me compared with the time-honoured method of rubbing the bird all over with a garlicky herb butter, giving it a 20-minute sizzle in a very hot oven, then turning the temperature down to 160C for as long as it takes to cook.
SwanJack said:
Brining the chicken alone will make a huge difference (i even brine my xmas turkey).
Genuinely interested in how this works- in my head osmosis would pull fluid from within the chicken to the water thus making it less tender. In practice what difference does it actually make?
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