Roast chicken with mushroom and sage butter under the skin
Stuffing a chicken that is to be roasted with butter, just under the skin, is one of the easiest ways you can give it a bit of va va voom and ensure a moist bird, too. The key thing is to lift the skin on the breast very carefully, you mustn’t tear it or the butter just runs out.
Ingrediënten
- 15 g ½oz dried wild mushrooms
- 75 g 2¾oz unsalted butter
- 250 g 9oz mushrooms, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
- 3 shallots very finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- squeeze of lemon juice
- 6 large sage leaves finely chopped
- 1.2 kg 2lb 10oz chicken
Instructies
- Pour some boiling water over the wild mushrooms and leave to soak for 30 minutes.
- Drain (you can keep the soaking liquid for a mushroom soup or risotto) and chop the mushrooms.
- Melt 15g (½oz) of the butter in a frying pan and sauté the fresh mushrooms until they are golden brown and quite dry: mushrooms throw moisture out as they cook and you need this to evaporate.
- Add the wild mushrooms, stir around and cook for another couple of minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Scrape the mushrooms into a dish and leave to cool completely.
- Mix the shallots and garlic in with the mushrooms, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the sage leaves.
- Now add the remaining butter and mash everything together.
- Put the butter mixture into the fridge to firm up.
- When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Put the chicken into a small roasting tin or ovenproof dish.
- Loosen the skin of the chicken, starting with the skin on the breast: carefully lift the skin and put your fingers in between the skin and the flesh, working your way down over the skin on the legs, too.
- You must be careful not to tear the skin.
- Now push the cold mushroom butter under the skin, spreading it down over the legs.
- Press the top of the chicken skin once you’ve used up all the butter, to make sure it is fairly evenly distributed.
- Season the bird with salt and pepper.
- Put the chicken into the hot oven and cook for one hour, basting every so often.
- Rest for 10 minutes under a double layer of foil.
- I love this with pumpkin purée – you can fry some more sage leaves and put them on top of the purée – and tagliatelle or orzo, or a brown and wild rice pilaf.
