Sara Cox On The Secret To The Perfect Roast Chicken

This week on the Good Food podcast, Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox joined Samuel Goldsmith to discuss how growing up on a farm has shaped the way she looks at food, her love for batch cooking that was instilled from a young age and how using her air fryer has revolutionised her roast chicken.

Her love for batch cooking

Although Sara is well-known for her career as a TV broadcaster and presenter, food has also played a significant role in her life, starting with her mum’s home cooking.

“My mum would always cook lovely food and she would make a big broth in a big pan – basically a pan the size you could bathe a Labrador in – and she’d have a ham shank in there.

“I use chicken thighs if I do it now. I think my love of food came from mum just boiling up these huge broths with loads of soup mixed in there and dried peas and loads of veg – sweet turnip, carrot, leek, onion, all of that good stuff in there.”

Due to the nature of her busy career, she keeps her freezer well-stocked.

“I’ve got a freezer full of stuff I’ve batch cooked. I think I learned that from my mum. She was always working and busy and so batch cooking is something I’ve really grown up with and I love it.

“Looking back we had proper cooked food that my mum made from scratch.”

How growing up on a farm shaped how she thinks about food

Growing up on a farm, she learned at a young age where her food came from.

“When I was growing up, I saw how my dad treated the animals that he cared for, how he treated them so well and how he had huge respect for them. So I always knew that bacon didn’t just come from that nice, clear plastic.

“It could be upsetting when I was really little. It’s kind of tough when you’re growing up on a farm and you realise where food comes from. But what balances that out is Dad’s farm was a really traditional little working farm.

“It wasn’t factory farming and he didn’t have thousands and thousands of animals. His cattle were treated beautifully. They were out in lovely fields with the sunshine on their backs and stuff. They had a good life.”

How the air fryer has transformed her roast chicken

Sara has found the secret to the perfect roast chicken – and it’s all thanks to her handy air fryer.

“Something I cook quite a lot now, which I’ve got my confidence with thanks to an air fryer, interestingly, is a roast chicken. Because when I did it in the oven, I don’t know why I was doing it wrong, I could just never really perfect it in the oven for some reason. It would always be a little bit rubbery tasting and not quite right.

“I find that if I get a small chicken, especially corn fed, and under the skin, on the breast, I stuff that with softened butter that I’ve put lots of salt and garlic and various herbs in there – fresh or dry. Then I really go to town and stuff that under the skin and rub the whole chicken in it.

“I don’t know if it’s to do with the temperature or the circulation of air – but it is just absolutely perfect. The skin is completely crisp, but the flesh is soft and it comes out beautifully. Something happens in there in that little magical space. I grew up always loving a roast dinner anyway and I’ve always been good at roast potatoes and all the bits on the side. I just wasn’t ever great at the actual chicken.”

Sara and her husband enjoy their air fryer roast chicken as part of their weekly Friday night dinner.

“My husband is Jewish and if you’re Jewish you have Friday night dinner. We’re not religious, but culturally, it’s a lovely thing to do.”

Building her wine collection

Sara has taken her love for wine and curated a collection with Perfect Cellar.

“We wanted wine that tasted like a treat, that is really good quality, like superb wine, but that doesn’t break the bank. It’s a bit of a treat, but it is still affordable.

“I’m learning all the time about it. I don’t know a huge amount about wine, and I think people can be quite intimidated. I’ve left it up the experts, and I’ve just chosen wines that I absolutely love. We’ve whittled it down together just from what I genuinely love. The vineyards get the credit and these lovely wine producers get recognised.

“I’d get that sort of sweat on when you have to order wine in a nice restaurant. I just always go, ‘Have you got a Malbec or have you got a Merlot?’

“And then for the rosé, I’d be like, ‘Is it dry? Is it very pale?’. I learned that actually the paleness is a bit of a trick, you can get some beautiful dry rosés that can actually be quite deep. We’ve all become obsessed, me included, with the palest of rosé.

“Part of the appeal was just to help people like me who really enjoy lovely wine, might want to get in a few bottles for a bit of a do at home and share some lovely wines with some lovely food.”

Listen to the full episode then discover the Good Food podcast archive for more culinary adventures.