Rotisserie Roast BBQ Chicken

This rotisserie style roast chicken is a result of talking to two of my friends. Monica makes a roast chicken that cooks on a low heat 120C/248F for a few hours. This keeps the chicken succulent and juicy and like me, she also likes dry brining the chicken beforehand. And when I told Laura about my roast chicken adventures she told me about a recipe idea that she had seen on TikTok by chef Colin Fassnidge where he roasted a chicken atop a loaf of bread. And that’s how we ended up with the most delicious roast chicken on garlic bread!

Tips For Making an Incredible Roast Chicken

1 – The key to this delicious seasoning mix is the use of Lemon Pepper. Lemon pepper is a mixture of lemon rind, salt and black pepper and gives the chicken a delicious lemony kick to it. I recently went to a restaurant that used Lemon Pepper in their Ras El Hanout and it made the spice mixture pop so much that I started making my own lemon pepper when I had an excess of lemons. But don’t worry you don’t have to make lemon pepper, you can buy it at the supermarket too! I make up a jar of this and use 2 tablespoons of the spice mix for a 1.5kg/3.3lb chicken.

2- I love brining chicken. It’s a small step that gives the chicken a restaurant quality result and takes 2 minutes total active time and just some waiting time. Dry brining also has the advantage of crisping up the skin beautifully.

3 – With this recipe you don’t have to constantly baste the chicken. Nor do you have to marinate the chicken! Just baste this once near the end and season the chicken just before you roast it.

4 – You want bread that fits as snugly over the chicken as possible. The bits of bread not under the chicken will crisp up quite a bit so you want an oval or cob loaf or something like that.

5 – Sometimes you just want a roast chicken and potatoes because perhaps the bread is too hard. I get that. Steps 1-3 give you an amazingly delicious roast chicken and potatoes. Step 1-4 give you a show stopping chicken, bread and potatoes.

Speaking of my friends, recently Laura and I had a little girls weekend in Victoria. We went for lunch in Daylesford and at 2pm we started to head back towards Melbourne for our 5:10pm flight. It would give us just enough time in the lounge to do some work as she had a big pitch the following day and then get on the plane. “Can you drive so that I can work?” she said and I jumped in the driver’s seat and hit the start button on the car.

Nothing. The computer display flashed and then died. A light dinged that there was a parking error and we looked at each other. Realising that we needed help straight away we put in a call to the Hertz car rental emergency number that connected us to the RACV who promised a 1 hour response time. In the meantime we looked up the car manual and youtube videos to try and see if we could figure out what was wrong but to no avail. An hour later a man rang saying that he would be there in half an hour.

Laura is a pro in a crisis (she works in PR) and managed to book 1 ticket for me using points and changed her ticket because she had booked it direct. Finally someone arrived, 2 hours after our call and quickly diagnosed it as a flat battery. This was a huge relief because it was a quick fix and within minutes we were on our way to the airport.

Google took us the most scenic, beautiful way and it actually helped soothe our frayed nerves. One of the lovely women at the lounge upon hearing that we’d had a bad day even upgraded our seats one level and told us that tomorrow would be a better day because she could tell that we had good hearts. Laura rehearsed for her pitch and we relaxed before our flight. The flight was thankfully uneventful and Mr NQN picked us both up with Teddy and Milo in the role of canine therapy. We dropped Laura off around 10:30pm at her apartment. She had a full night planned of rehearsals and the pitch early the next morning. On our way home I told Mr NQN about everything that had happened.

And then Laura called.

It turned out that during our weekend away her apartment had flooded with the crazy Sydney rain! She had had a little cry and composed herself and then booked herself into a hotel for the next 2 nights. She unplugged all the electricals and within a few hours was sitting at a room at the Shangri-la Hotel eating delivered KFC because sometimes you need to sage your life and eventually, hopefully, life stops antagonising you!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever have one of those days? Have you ever tried roasting chicken on bread? What do you think of this idea?

Perfect Rotisserie Chicken On Garlic Bread

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus optional brining

Cooking time: 5 hours

For Brining and stuffing

For Seasoning (seasoning quantity for up to 2kg/4.4lb chicken)

• 25g/0.9oz butter, softened
• 3 teaspoons lemon pepper
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 2 teaspoons fine onion powder (not flakes)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1.5 teaspoons salt (use 1/2 teaspoon of you have brined the chicken)
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

For Garlic Bread & Potatoes

• 700g/1.5lb loaf bread (to fit the chicken)
• 100g/3.5ozs salted butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 125g/4ozs cherry tomatoes, halved or whole (optional)
• 1/4 cup soft herbs like chives, tarragon, sage
• 500g/1.1lbs potatoes, washed and cut into long wedges
• 30ml/2 tablespoons olive oil plus extra for brushing
• 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs chicken stock
• 50ml/1.7flozs lemon juice

Step 1 – I also like to dry brine the chicken a couple of days before roasting. Remove the fat and any other giblets from the chicken. Lay the chicken on a rack or even on a plate with a few paper towels underneath it and pat it dry with a paper towel on the breast side down. Sprinkle salt all over the skin of the chicken and keep it in the fridge uncovered. Flip the chicken halfway through to make sure that the skin all over is dried out leaving it with the breast on top for the last day. Do this up to 2 days in advance. Wipe off the excess salt with a slightly damp paper towel.

Step 2 – Make sure that the oven racks have a high clearance to fit everything in (it’s quite high). Preheat oven to 120C/248F fan forced and have a large roasting dish ready. Stuff the chicken with the onion (you may not use the entire onion depending on size of onion and chicken). Mix all of the seasoning ingredients together (lemon pepper, sweet paprika, fine onion powder, garlic powder, salt and white pepper) in a bowl. With your fingers, lift under the skin and smear butter all over the breast meat between the skin and the meat. Add some seasoning inside there too and inside the cavity of the chicken and then season the chicken all over but leaving it breast side up. You may not need all of the seasoning, especially if your chicken is smaller.

Step 3 – Toss the potato wedges in oil and then spread out on the base of the tray. Pour the chicken stock and lemon juice over the potatoes and set aside.

Step 4 – With a bread knife or serrated knife, trim off the top third of the bread leaving 2/3 of the bread underneath it (make the remaining bread into croutons or a sandwich). Roughly chop the herbs and halve the tomatoes if they’re on the larger side. Mix the melted butter and garlic powder together. Place the herbs and tomatoes over the bread and then pour the garlic butter over the bread making sure to disperse it well especially on the ends that won’t be covered by the chicken. Place the chicken on top and roast for 5 hours. When 4 hours is up and there is 1 hour to go, brush with some oil and return to the oven to another hour. The chicken is ready when the temperature of where the thigh meets the rest of the chicken reaches 77-79°C/170-175°F.