How to cook our free-range cockerel
Our award-winning free-range cockerels were a huge hit last Christmas so we’ve decided to bring them back for another year of festive feasting.
We have two different sizes this year – our large cockerel is 3kg and our extra large, which is 4kg. Our free-range cockerels are a slow-growing French breed and we rear them for more than 100 days. They enjoy roaming around the farm and foraging in the pastures.
Free-range chickens are great, but our free-range cockerels are even better. They are larger, slow-growing birds that have plenty of flavour, with a lot of meat to go around. We’re confident they’re unlike anything you’ve tried before.
This is how we cook our free-range cockerel, perfect for your Christmas centrepiece:
- Remove your cockerel from the fridge an hour before cooking and bring it to room temperature.
- Preheat your oven to 210C
- Season the bird all over with salt and pepper. OR, you can brine it for a few days prior to cooking.
- Roast the cockerel in the oven for 30 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160C
- Continue to roast for 40 minutes per kilo until the meat reaches an internal temperature of at least 68C. You can use a meat thermometer to check the temperature.
- Remove it from the oven and leave to rest for 30 minutes before slicing up and serving!