Chicken Cooked in Milk: Aka the Best Roast Chicken Ever

by Georgina Hayden, featured in MEDesque

Published by Bloomsbury

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Introduction

I first ate a version of this when I was working for Jamie Oliver, as it’s a technique he is super, super fond of, a classic Italian method of cooking pork or chicken. It blew my mind. To be honest, this is not an aesthetically pleasing dish, as the milk splits in the sauce, but you will never cook a more tender or flavoursome roast chicken, and those ugly juices contain nuggets of flavour gold. You should absolutely make this next Sunday.

As featured in

MEDesque

Image of Georgina Hayden's Chicken Cooked In Milk — Photo by Laura Edwards

Ingredients

Serves: 6

1 x 1.8kg whole chicken
60 grams unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bulb of garlic
1 unwaxed lemon
500 millilitres full fat milk
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Chicken Cooked in Milk: Aka the Best Roast Chicken Ever is a guest recipe by Georgina Hayden so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

Take the chicken out of the fridge 20 minutes before you are going to cook it. Preheat your oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas mark 5. Season the bird all over with salt and pepper. Place the butter and olive oil in a large flameproof casserole, or heavy-based saucepan that has a lid, and pop it over a medium heat. Carefully brown the chicken all over, as best you can, trying not to pierce or cut the skin in the process. Go slowly; this should take around 10 minutes. While it is frying, remove the excess papery skins from the garlic bulb and cut it in half horizontally. Peel off the zest of the lemon in strips with a vegetable peeler. When the chicken has browned, transfer it to a plate and carefully drain the fat from the pan; reserve it for roasting or frying veg. Add the milk to the pan with the garlic, lemon zest strips and rosemary sprigs. Season it well and bring it to the boil, then return the chicken to the pan, breast side up, and cover with the lid.
Transfer to the oven and cook for 40 minutes. Remove the lid, then roast for a further 50 minutes, basting occasionally with the milk. When the chicken is ready, leave it to rest in the pot for 5–10 minutes before serving. I like to shred or carve the chicken and spoon over the milky broth. It might not be the prettiest sauce, but don’t strain it; trust me, you’ll want all those creamy garlic cloves and milk solids in there.