Roast Capons

Roast Capons is a traditional Elizabethan recipe for roast chicken flavoured with spices. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Elizabethan version of Roast Capons.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

35 minutes

Total Time:

55 minutes

Serves:

6

Rating: 4.5 star rating

Tags : Chicken RecipesFowl RecipesBritish Recipes



Original Recipe



Roast Capons (from Gervaise Markham The English Houswife)


Then to know the best basting for meat, which is sweet Butter, sweet Oyl, Barrel Butter, or fine redred up seam, with Cinnamon, Cloves and Mace


Modern Redaction


Ingredients:

60g unsalted butter
40g good extra virgin olive oil
⅛, tsp powdered cinnamon
⅛, tsp ground cloves
⅛, tsp powdered mace
6 chicken thighs (with skin)

Method:

Traditionally a capon was a castrated cockerel which grew larger than a normal chicken. Free-range and fed corn these birds had a flavour all their own that was much gamier than a normal chicken. This recipe would originally have been made with a whole bird, roasted slowly but I decided to try chicken thigh (which are the most flavoursome parts of ordinary chickens to see how they worked.

Place the butter, olive oil and spices in a small pan and heat to melt the butter. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas Mark 4), baste your chicken thighs with the butter mixture, place in a baking dish and roast for about 35 minutes until the thighs are a rich golden brown. Every five minutes or so take the thighs from the oven and baste with more of the butter mixture. Serve immediately.