Roast Cockerel

the little red rooster

12th June, 2011

I roasted one of the happy chicken (see here) on Sunday – I was expecting cockerel to be a bit tough, but since it was only about 4 months old I thought I should try roasting one of them first, before making coq au vin.

raw cockerel

Rooster recipe:

Rub your 2 lb cockerel with butter and stuff with a 6 pieces of garlic, an onion, some sprigs of rosemary, sage and thyme. Add a little salt and pepper, a knob of butter and I left the liver inside. Sprinkle on some more salt and pepper and wrap with 4 slices of streaky bacon. I tied the legs together to keep the stuffing in.

wrapped in bacon

Preheat the oven to maximum and cook the cockerel for 20 minutes, then baste, add a glass of red wine, a dash of red wine vinegar and turn the oven down to 180º C. Baste at 20 minute intervals and after an hour remove the bacon (you can save the bacon and, later, chop it up and serve it with vegetables). Cook for a further 30 minutes, or until brown. Rest your bird for up to 30 minutes before serving.

roast cockerel

I was very pleasantly surprised and glad I tried roasting a young cockerel. He was very tender and could be the best roast chicken I have ever eaten. It just goes to show that a home reared and killed, free range chicken, can be worth all that care and attention.