Recommended: Perfection - Blumenthal's Carrot & Roast Chicken

In his TV series In Search of Perfection Heston Blumenthal showed his methodprowess of cooking the Perfect Roast Chicken. He recommended Bresse chicken that is free range chicken reared for 10 months instead of the shorter 4 months sold in UK supermarkets, the same as here. Along the way to find his perfect breed for the roast, he came across a roadside motor-inn in France beside a service station that only had Bresse chicken on the menu. He recalled childhood memories he had of chicken cooked the way he loved, and traveled to to him was the quintessential of the best he had tasted, ever. The series is very entertaining, certainly for those who love cooking!

Cooking the Chicken

Wash the chicken. Blanch in boiling water for 30-sec then plunge in ice-cold water to stop the cooking. Repeat the procedure a second time. That will kill any bacteria on the skin and inside the chicken cavity. Use a paper towel to remove and dry the chicken as much as possible. Then put the bird in the fridge overnight to allow the chicken to be really dry before you roast them.

Roast the chicken in a 60-d C for 4-1/2 hr. Use an oven thermometer to monitor the oven temperature as the oven's own temperature setting is not usually accurate.

I set the oven to slightly below the 60° C mark and found that oven setting will give a 60° C temperature on my WMF oven thermometer.

I also discovered I need not reset my oven temp during the 4-1/2 hr period as once set the oven did not deviate from the 60°C temperature.

You may brown the chicken after roasting in a hot pan. Blumenthal used peanut oil, 2-3 T, and waited until the oil starts to smoke. Then he saute the chicken, max is 2 min, he said. He also cooked the wing tips in 100-g butter in medium heat to infuse the melted butter with the roasted tips, then inject the infusion into the roasted chicken for extra flavor.

Cooking the Carrots & Potatoes

Blumenthal chose broccoli and carrots. He blanched the broccoli 1 min in boiling water, then plunge them in cold water to stop the cooking. Finally to bring out the flavor he put them in a pan with a small 1-in cube of butter, salt and pepper and lightly cooked them for 1-2 min.

I found the broccoli still hard based on his timing and will use a longer blanching time such as 2-3 min instead of 1 min.

For the 12 carrots, cut them in 2-inch lengths and quarter the cross-section. Cook the carrots without water in 50-g butter, salt and pepper, nothing else. The carrots are cooked in their own steam, so you need to watch your fire and timing to avoid charring the carrots. Which I did not do, with unfortunate results! That was because pressure-cooker and estimated 5 min cooking time. The charring had started by the time my nose told me that 5-min was too long and burnt the carrots. Better cook in a normal pan, use a low-medium fire, lifting the lid to check occasionally after the first 3 min.

Nevertheless, I did salvage a few carrot pieces that were not burnt, and these tasted delicious in their natural sweetness! And you can really taste the carrot flavor cooked this way!

Update 23-06-11: I again cooked carrots (3 large carrots, salt, pepper, 20-g butter) the Blumenthal way, this time using a covered pan with a 1/2-in water heated to boiling, then simmered for 15 min. Cooking is done when a fork easily pierce through the carrot wedges. This time the carrots turned out perfectly - delish!

UPDATE 07-06-2012 Cooked 2 x carrots in HCP. Cover carrots slices with water, close the lid, and heat under low-med flame for 10 min. Add salt (1/2 tsp, according to taste) to the pan. Open pan and skewer carrots for tenderness. When the skewer pierces without resistance through the carrot I will open the lid and continue to boil until very little water is left. Then I add 20-30g butter, grind black pepper over the carrots, turn flame to low, and heat until almost dry. At this stage, monitor to ensure carrots are not burnt but roasted nicely. A little char is fine. Done!

Cooking the Potato WedgesYou might want to look at Ramsay's method or use the HCP to roast whole potatoes skin-on.

1. Wash and cut the potatoes into wedges.

2. Soak in water to remove as much starch as possible.

3. Put in a pot, add salt and potatoes wedges and cover with water upto 2-inches over wedges. Salt will produce a crispier brown crust when the wedges are baked. By contrast, according to Blumenthal, boiling the wedges in unsalted water produce wedges that are lighter colored without the crispness.

4. Boil for approx 20 min or until you're sure the wedges are cooked through and still intact, not about to disintegrate. Usually I cook 7 min in the mw, and use a fork to check the wedges for doneness, mw'ing in additional 1-minute spurts if needed.

5. When done, take out the wedges and place in a colander to dry for 10 min.

6. Fry the wedges lightly to ensure all the wedges are coated with olive oil before you bake them.

7. Bake at 190°C for 1 hr.

8. Ten minutes before the 1-hr baking time, add yr preferred condiments, which is black pepper and garlic. Blumenthal used rosemary and garlic. He also put olive oil in the baking tray with the potatoes. I did not.

9. Be cautious in adding salt as you don't want to over-salt the wedges. Blumenthal did not add any as the wedges were already boiled in salted water.