Roast Chicken for Dinner

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Noodle Cook's favourite used to be a pair of secondhand cast iron skillets with seasoning still intact thanks to the previous owner. That was until IKEA reduced their "Made in France" 5 litre enamelled cast iron cocotte to $59.95, a mega 25% savings. At such a bargain price a cheap skase like Noodle Cook has no choice but to queue up and grab. Why wait for a La Creuset or La Chasseur sale? After all, there are only two factories in France making cast iron cookware and the IKEA one probably comes from one of brand name factories. The Kitchen Warehouse sells discount price La Creuset and La Chasseur which you can order online.

There is just one slight problem with this marvellous piece of cookware: Noodle Cook has never used one before! The instructions come with no recipe. OK, you fry some milk in oil to prepare for first use, then what???

It is now up to sly Noodle Cook to hatch a dinner plan for the weekend...

It doesn't take too long for John to announce roast chicken and suddenly out comes the cocotte! John was thrilled with the prospect of cooking with a "camp oven" again, ever since he was volunteered into cooking for the field crew out in the bush. The downside of having John as executive chef means Noodle Cook does the peeling and cutting.

An executive chef cooks to perfection, so a recipe must be found. The first Google attempt returns "Le Poulet de Muriel" by Chocolate and Zucchini, a roast chicken scented with garlic, lemon, thyme and rosemary. An incredibly simple bung it into the oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 3 hours and uncover to brown at 220 degrees Celsius. Before long the Google searches proclaim that it takes 50 minutes per kilo of chicken plus 25 minute at 180 degrees Celsius to French roast a chicken in a Le Creuset cocotte.

Just as Noodle Cook reaches out for the calculator to work out how long it takes to cook a 1.8 kg Mt Barker free range chicken, John interrupts that dinner must be started NOW as it takes 2 hours to cook the chicken his way: it must not be overpowered by garlic, it must have chilli, remove the fat but not the neck, stuff with lemon blanched in boiling water in a pot heated on the stove...

Under intense supervision, Noodle Cook makes one mistake by cutting the blanched whole lemon, intended for stuffing, into halves instead of just slashing the skin which makes the flavouring sour instead of just lemon scented. Like Chocolate and Zucchini's recipe, there really is nothing to the recipe:

1. Defat the chicken
2. Stuff with a blanched lemon
3. Rub the chicken with grapeseed oil
4. Place in the brand new crocotte
5. Arrange quartered potatoes, turnip, and sweet potatoes, and an unpeeled onion around the chicken
6. Top the chicken with chilli slices
7. Season with coarse sea salt
8. Cover and put in an hour preheated at 220 degrees Celsius.
9. Cook for 2 hours at 180 degrees Celsius without peeping.
10. Remove chicken and vegetables to a serving tray and brown at 250 degrees Celsius. Allow 15 minutes browning plus 15 minutes for resting.
11. Decant the fat from the cocotte
12. Use the pan juices to make a gravy
13. Add some plain flour and deglaze with white wine

... and WOW, what an awesome dinner, from a simple chicken scented with intense flavours of onion, lemon and roasted chilli. If there is any secret to roasting to perfection using the crocotte, then it lies in keeping the ingredients dry while letting heat and enough moisture from the ingredients themselves to infuse the aromas.

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Boneless Beef Shin

There's only one foolproof way of transforming a frugal cut like boneless beef shin into a restaurant meal to please the worst food critic in town, such as John the villain in this blog. The secret is slow cooking at low temperature to melt the tough gristle into sumptuous gelatine.

To get this beef cut, check out Wing Hong, at 402 William Street in Northbridge which offers it at $7.79/kg.


Lightly oil the beef. The oil keeps the roast moist rather than develops the flavour during cooking as the temperature is not high enough.

Season with salt, pepper and fennel if liked.

Refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours. Bring to room temperature before cooking in an oven preheated at 75 degrees Celsius. Place the meat in a ceramic container which retains the heat well during cooking.

Allow 6 hrs to bring 600 g of meat to 60 degrees Celsius for medium rare. Check that the meat is cooked to your liking using a meat thermometer or a skewer to test the juices. If you like medium to well done, the juice should run clear.

Rest for at least 30 minutes before serving. It is best to under cooked as the meat will continue cooking while resting. The cooking can always be finished off by searing in a hot pan


The cooked beef looks pink on the inside and brown on the outside. Don't be fooled by the colour: the meat looks pink even when well done.



A juicy roast tastes great with horseradish sauce and creamed broccoli, cauliflower or spinach as part of a main course. Thin slices, cut after lightly freezing, works well in cold entree platters.

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