The easiest way to cook a chicken is to roast it. Oven @ 180c, rub chicken with oil, season, maybe stuff a half lemon in it. Put it on a high shelf for 20mins, then reduce the heat to 150c, lower the position in the oven and cook for a further 45min-1hr. Rest for 15mins before serving.
You will find this recipe and variants of it from good chefs all over the world. They will tell you that this is the perfect roast chicken and that the breast is juicy and the legs are perfect and you can make gravy from the tray etc. It's all Rubbish! This method of cooking a chicken is a huge compromise. I'm not saying don't do it, but if you want to cook chicken properly, this is not the way to do it.
If I'm doing a roast chicken I like to take the breasts off then roast the rest of the bird as normal. You don't even have to reduce the heat, just leave it in the middle of the oven. You can then cook roast potatoes with it etc. Then cook the breast separately. The creamy breast is a lovely contrast to the crispy legs.
To cook a chicken perfectly though, you need to compartmentalise the chicken. There are 3 parts to a chicken.
1. the breasts
2. The legs
3. the carcass and wings
These 3 parts of the chicken are completely separate. This is because the structure of the breast meat is different to the legs and carcass. The carcass doesn't have enough meat on it for a meal, so this is used differently too.
The breast should be gently cooked. It's important to not raise the temperature over around 70c. It's possible to slice it thinly and flash fry it in a hot pan, but you're not gaining a lot from doing that. The best way to cook a breast is to poach it, either in sauce or stock.
The legs need a higher temperature, over 75c, and can take a hot browning. So you can oven roast them @ 180c with vegetables for around 35-45mins.
The carcass always needs to be used for stock.
So always remember, do your breast justice and cook it like a breast, not a leg ;-)
