Speaker 1: During my two hundred and fifty plus days in Melbourne's Lockdown,
Speaker 1: I was on a mission to use my extra time
Speaker 1: at home to master making the perfect roast chicken. But
Speaker 1: it didn't really work out, and on several occasions I
Speaker 1: think I came very close to giving the people I
Speaker 1: cooked for food poisoning. Now, while this podcast is all
Speaker 1: about the world of work, it's not every day that
Speaker 1: you get to speak to one of Australia's most renowned chefs,
Speaker 1: Maggie Beer. So when I got the chance to speak
Speaker 1: to Maggie Beer last year, I was desperate to know
Speaker 1: how do you make the perfect roast chicken. My name
Speaker 1: is doctor Amantha Imba. I'm an organizational psychologist and the
Speaker 1: founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium. And this is how
Speaker 1: I work, a show about how to help you do
Speaker 1: your best work. On today is my Face Tip episode,
Speaker 1: we go back to an interview from the past and
Speaker 1: I pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In
Speaker 1: today's show, I speak with Maggie Beer about how to
Speaker 1: roast the perfect chicken. Okay, so now with roast chicken,
Speaker 1: I think during twenty twenty I maybe roasted twenty chickens, right,
Speaker 1: I was determined to perfect it, and then I found
Speaker 1: like they were getting better and better, and then they
Speaker 1: started getting worse and worse and they were undercooked, and
Speaker 1: you know, all right, risking people's health. So what are
Speaker 1: the secrets to creating the perfect roast chicken?
Speaker 2: The secret to creating a perfect roast chicken is one
Speaker 2: by yourself a digital thermometer. Two, buy a well bought
Speaker 2: up chook and not a supermarket chook. There is such
Speaker 2: a difference. It's phenomenal a supermarket chilk.
Speaker 1: Will I was just going to say, how do we
Speaker 1: know if it's been well brought up? Is it just
Speaker 1: a matter of going to a butcher rather than a supermarket.
Speaker 2: No, it's asking questions. You know, there's a lot we
Speaker 2: have to If we're looking for the best washing machine,
Speaker 2: we would do some research. For the best chook. You've
Speaker 2: got to do the same. And every state has got
Speaker 2: really good chicken farmers where they're grown out naturally without
Speaker 2: antibiotics which are used as a preventative to grow cooks
Speaker 2: out quicker. And you want to know about their feed. So,
Speaker 2: like everything, if you want something good, you've got to
Speaker 2: do some background and make some choices how delicious Produce
Speaker 2: Awards I'm very proud of. I'm the patron of those,
Speaker 2: and each year Produce Awards you'll find they are finalists
Speaker 2: in each state. And I know, I certainly know they
Speaker 2: are in South Australia. They're beautiful chooks here because they're
Speaker 2: within our family. But in Victoria they have, in Queensland
Speaker 2: they have, In New South Wales they have really great chooks,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure they have in Western Australia and Tasmania too.
Speaker 2: So you've got to do a bit of work to
Speaker 2: be buying well. And then it's a case of not
Speaker 2: overcooking nor undercooking your chook. And I think I did
Speaker 2: a paper with for Matt Preston at one stage and
Speaker 2: I came up with twenty nine different things that can
Speaker 2: make a difference.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, what are some of those things?
Speaker 2: Well, some of those things is for me, it's protecting
Speaker 2: the breast with some foil when cooking so the breast
Speaker 2: will dry out much easier. I cook it, say to
Speaker 2: I always cook a large chook, say to kilos, because
Speaker 2: that's a chok that's grown out naturally and allowed, you know,
Speaker 2: had a good life and so I will cook for
Speaker 2: probably two hundred degrees with the breast protected in an
Speaker 2: oven tray with not very high sides, because that's important.
Speaker 2: So the heat gets right into the chok for the
Speaker 2: first twenty or thirty minutes, and then I will take
Speaker 2: the foil off and I will rub the chook. I
Speaker 2: have previously rubbed the chok with extra virgin olive oil
Speaker 2: and salt. And then I will cook for about fifty minutes.
Speaker 2: Then I will check the temperature at the thickest part.
Speaker 2: It must be sixty five degrees CE at the thickest
Speaker 2: part to be safe. And then I will cook it
Speaker 2: a little bit longer. I'll drizzle it with verdues, and
Speaker 2: then I will take it out of the oven at
Speaker 2: about an hour or an hour and ten turn it
Speaker 2: over because that really helps all the go back down
Speaker 2: into the breast, which is more likely to be dry.
Speaker 2: So look, I could tell you a whole lot of
Speaker 2: other things.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like making notes as you talk. I'm just
Speaker 1: so excited to try these, Like what are some other
Speaker 1: things that come to mind?
Speaker 2: Some other things, put some lemon and some thyme in
Speaker 2: the cavity, or always dry out the cavity before you
Speaker 2: start cooking, because there can be You know that they're
Speaker 2: always put in a bag after they've been processed, and
Speaker 2: so you know you want to get rid of that
Speaker 2: those juices that which are just water and blood. I
Speaker 2: quite often spatchcock the chook if I'm wanting to cook
Speaker 2: a little bit quicker. But that rubbing of the skin
Speaker 2: with the olive oil and olive oil and salt to
Speaker 2: start with and then diglazing it with verjuice helps enormously.
Speaker 1: I hope you are now feeling motivated to maybe make
Speaker 1: someone special in your life a roast for dinner tonight.
Speaker 1: And if you are looking for more tips to improve
Speaker 1: the way that you work, I write a short fortnightly
Speaker 1: newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that
Speaker 1: help me work better, ranging from interest in research findings,
Speaker 1: street to gadgets and software that I am loving. You
Speaker 1: can sign up for that at Howiwork dot co. That's
Speaker 1: how I Work dot co. How I Work is produced
Speaker 1: by Ventium with production support from Dead Set Studios, and
Speaker 1: thank you to Martin Nimba who does the audio mix
Speaker 1: for every episode and makes everything sounds so much better
Speaker 1: than it would have otherwise, see you next time.