# Roast Chicken **Chef:** Pranav **Cookbook:** Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook **Potluck Date:** December 20, 2025 --- ## Recipe ROAST CHICKEN FLAVOURED BUTTERS ROAST DUCK ROAST VENISON MEATLOAF RACK OF LAMB SALMON EN CROÛTE FISH PIE FISH CURRY SALT CRUST SALMON Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook ROAST GOOSE SLOW-COOKED WITH CHRISTMAS SPICES If you’ve never had roast goose before, it’s an absolute must. This method is reliable and will give you an experience you definitely won’t forget, whether it’s the first meal from it, or using up the lovely leftovers it gives you (if there are any!). SERVES 83 HOURS 30 MINUTES 1 large goose (4–5kg), halved lengthways by your butcher 6cm piece of ginger 6 large sticks of cinnamon 6 star anise 2 teaspoons whole cloves olive oil 2 oranges red wine vinegar Get your meat out of the fridge and up to room temperature before you cook it. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Peel and finely slice the ginger, then, keeping everything quite coarse, lightly crush it in a pestle and mortar with the cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Rub into the skin of the goose halves, then put both halves skin side up in your biggest deep-sided roasting tray and drizzle with a little oil. Roast for 3 hours (depending on the size of your goose), basting every hour. After the goose has been in for 2 hours, slice the oranges and carefully add to the tray. The goose is cooked when the leg meat falls easily off the bone. Now you’ve got two choices. Leave it to rest, covered, for 30 minutes, then serve up while it’s hot and crispy-skinned, in which case simply remove the meat to a board, shred the leg meat and slice the breast. Pour all the fat into a jar, cool, and place in the fridge for tasty cooking another day, such as my Best roast potatoes (see here). Stir a good swig of vinegar into the tray to pick up all the sticky goodness from the base, then drizzle over your meat. Serve with spuds, veg and all the usual trimmings. Your second choice is to let everything cool in the tray, then place it in the fridge for up to 2 days, with the goose submerged and protected in its own fat, ready to reheat when you need it, getting you ahead of the game and saving you time and oven space another day. To reheat, put the whole tray back in a preheated oven at 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 and let the goose crisp up for around 30 minutes, or until hot through, then shred, slice and serve as above. LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS They’ll be delicious shredded into a salad or stew, or used in place of leftover turkey meat for recipes in the Leftovers chapter. Blitz any leftover skin with breadcrumbs, then toast, and use as an epic sprinkle.   Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook ROAST BEEF WITH A DELICIOUS PULLED MEAT GRAVY Forerib is such an exciting and beautiful cut of meat to cook. The subtle seasoning of ground ginger is absolutely sublime, and with tender pulled meat and Barolo gravy on the side, this meal is a real celebration of brilliant beef. SERVES 123 HOURS 30 MINUTES 1 x 4kg forerib of beef, French trimmed, chine bone removed, cap removed and reserved, fat tied back on olive oil 4 teaspoons ground ginger 2 onions 2 carrots 2 sticks of celery 2 fresh bay leaves 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary Worcestershire sauce 1 glass of red wine, ideally Barolo 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour Buy your beef from the butcher, and ask for local, grass-fed, well-marbled meat. Put in your order a month in advance so they can hang the meat for you, for better flavour and tenderness. Ask for a French-trimmed forerib with the chine bone removed and the fat tied back on, and ask them to reserve the removed cap meat for you, too. Get your forerib and cap out of the fridge 2 hours before you want to cook them, to let them come up to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Drizzle both pieces of meat with oil. Mix the ground ginger with 2 teaspoons each of sea salt and black pepper, then rub all over both pieces of meat. Place the cap meat in a large roasting tray. Peel the onions, wash the carrots, then roughly chop with the celery and scatter into the tray with the bay leaves, rosemary sprigs, a good few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, the red wine and the flour. Mix everything up, then place the tray on the bottom shelf of the oven. Sit the forerib directly on the bars above, so the cap tray catches all the flavoursome fat that drips out. Roast the forerib for around 2 hours to 2 hours 15 minutes for medium, or give it up to an extra 30 minutes if you prefer it more well done (if using a meat thermometer, you want to reach an internal temperature of 60ºC or 70ºC). Roast the cap meat for the same time. Remove the forerib to a platter, cover with tin foil and leave to rest for 1 hour 30 minutes before serving. Skim away most of the fat from the cap tray into a jar, cool, and place in the fridge for tasty cooking another day. Pick out and discard the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs, add 750ml of boiling kettle water, cover with tin foil and return to the oven for around 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the meat is pullable – the time can vary depending on the animal, so use your instincts. Use two forks to pull and shred the meat in the tray, discarding any sinew and wobbly bits, then either mix the pulled meat back through the flavoursome veggies and gravy, or sieve and serve the gravy in a pouring jug on the side, loosening if needed. Carve the forerib, and serve both meats with all the usual trimmings, particularly Yorkshire puds (see here) and Horseradish sauce (see here).   Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook JERK HAM RUBBED WITH SPICES & GLAZED WITH RUM-SPIKED MARMALADE These days, if I’m going to do a baked ham, it’s got to be this recipe. The contrast of gorgeous juicy ham with the outer crust of incredible jerk flavours and the sweet rummy marmalade glaze that finishes it off is just brilliant. Heaven. SERVES 16–203 HOURS 40 MINUTES 1 x 4kg piece of middle-cut gammon, with knuckle 1 tablespoon black peppercorns 1 bouquet garni 1 onion JERK 3 cloves of garlic 3 red shallots 3 fresh Scotch bonnet chillies ½ a bunch of fresh thyme (15g) 3 fresh bay leaves ½ a bunch of fresh chives (15g) 1 tablespoon runny honey 1 tablespoon each ground allspice, ground nutmeg, ground cloves 100ml golden rum 100ml malt vinegar GLAZE 1 orange 150ml golden rum 3 tablespoons quality bitter orange marmalade Get your meat out of the fridge and up to room temperature before you cook it. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325ºF/gas 3. Place the gammon in a deep roasting tray with the peppercorns and bouquet garni. Peel the onion, cut into wedges and add to the tray. Pour in enough water to come halfway up the side of the tray, then cover it with tin foil. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave for 30 minutes, keeping it covered. Now, while it’s still warm, carefully remove the skin, keeping the fat attached to the ham. With a Stanley knife, score the ham by making lots of diagonal cuts across the leg. Turn the oven up to 180º/350ºF/gas 4. To make the jerk seasoning, peel the garlic and shallots, deseed the chillies, and place them all in a food processor. Strip in the thyme leaves, tear the bay leaves off the stalks, and add the leaves to the processor with all the other jerk ingredients and 1 tablespoon of sea salt. Blitz it up until smooth, then brush or rub (wearing gloves!) it all over the ham and scored fat. Bake the ham for 1 hour. For the glaze, squeeze the orange juice into a bowl and mix with the rum and marmalade. Remove the ham from the oven, pour over the glaze, then roast for another 30 to 40 minutes, basting with a brush every 10 minutes, or until cooked through, sticky and golden. Remove the ham to a board, ready to slice hot, cold or at room temperature. Pour all the spicy fat into a jar, cool, and place in the fridge for tasty cooking another day. LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS Use them in my Pea soup (see here), serve with my Bubble & squeak (see here), or at a party with pickles, condiments and nice bread --- *Downloaded from BCBCBath Cookbook Club* *https://bcbcbath.com*