ARTICLE
Upside-down sage-stuffed chook with no-cook lemony gravy and upside-down iceberg salad
November 10, 2025-3 min read
Written by cook: Alice Zaslavsky
This is my favourite way to roast a chook: dry, hot, upside-down! First you use the arctic dryness of your refrigerator to dry-age the chicken overnight on the bottom shelf (above the crisper) to help get the skin phenomenally crispy, then you roast breast side down, to protect the delicate meat from drying out and give you extra crispy skin on the legs (my favourite bits!). Stuffing the cavity with flavoursome.
Starting the oven raging hot means that you give that first blast of heat to encourage the golden colour and keep the skin from bubbling, then dropping the heat to keep it roasting until it’s roasted on top and tender throughout. For the cooking time, roast a bird of this size for around 1 hour 10 minutes. (A good rule of thumb is 40 minutes for the first kilogram, then 20 minutes for every extra kilo.)
For the lemony gravy, there’s no need to do anything but whisk the ingredients together in the pan – the mustard and lemon juice will emulsify with the schmaltzy chicken pan juices to create the ultimate tangy side.
The upside-down method also extends to my light and bright side here, perfect for a festive feast down under – an iceberg wedge salad, where the Christmassy cranberry & chive dressing’s underneath so it can stand for hours without getting wilty.
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Ingredients
1 large whole chicken, at least 1.8kg–2kg
2 teaspoons salt flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon
4 garlic cloves, bruised
½ bunch sage
No-cook lemony gravy
All the schmaltzy pan juices
4 garlic cloves (from the roasted chicken cavity)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons finely sliced sage leaves
1 lemon (from the roasted chicken cavity)
Salt flakes, to season
Freshly cracked black pepper, to season
Upside-down Iceberg salad with cranberry & chive dressing
2 small heads of iceberg lettuce, wedged, soaked and spun
200gm creme fraiche
¼ cup chopped fresh dill, pretty fronds reserved
¼ cup chopped fresh chives
¼ cup cranberries, finely chopped
Lemon wedges to serve
Check the chicken cavity for necks and feet (save these in the freezer for making stock). Pat the chicken dry all over. Place it on a plate, breast side down. Leave, uncovered, on the lowest shelf of the fridge to dry out overnight. This step is a lot like cultivating the crackling on roast pork. It takes some planning, but the resulting shards of golden chicken skin are well worth the delayed gratification.
Take the chicken out of the fridge an hour before you're going to roast it, so that it's not fridge-cold, leaving it loosely covered with foil.
When you're ready to get roasting, preheat the oven to 220°C fan (240°C conventional).
Pour olive oil and sprinkle salt flakes into the base of your roasting pan. Pat the chicken dry, then massage in the salt flakes and olive oil (this means you won’t have to use chickeny hands on your oil bottle or salt. Chuck the lemon in the cavity with the garlic cloves and sage, folded in half so it fits. This helps distribute the heat more evenly, while also flavouring the chicken.
Put the chook in a roasting pan, breast side down. This protects the delicate breast meat from overcooking and also exposes the parson's nose (my favourite bit) for maximum crunch-factor. Slide the pan into the oven and immediately drop the heat down to 180°C fan (200°C conventional). This gives the skin enough time to start crisping up without blistering, meaning that, by the time your chook's cooked, the skin will be evenly golden and the meat as moist as can be. You can check it's done by poking a sharp knife into the thickest part of the leg and watching for the juice to run clear, or using a meat thermometer (78-80°C in the thickest part).
For the salad:
While the chook cooks, in a small bowl, mix the creme fraiche, herbs and cranberries (reserving some herbs and cranberries for garnish). Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cover the base of a large plate with the dressing, then arrange the lettuce wedges on top in the shape of the Sydney Opera House. Cover with a damp kitchen towel to stay moist until just before serving. When ready to serve, remove the kitchen cloth and scatter the reserved herbs and chopped cranberries over along with a crack of pepper and set aside until it’s time to serve. With lemon cheeks ready for squeezing at the table.
Once the chook is cooked, pull the roasting pan out of the oven. Transfer the chicken to a carving tray (ideally with a moat) to rest. While the chicken is resting, make the lemony gravy by squeezing the garlic out of its skins and smooshing into the bottom of the roasting pan, add the mustard, sage, juice from the roasted lemon and mix together until it starts to emulsify. Add any resting juices in and mix together, then transfer to a small pouring jug.
Once the chicken is cool enough to touch, you can slice in and arrange on a serving platter. Pop the salad and the lemony gravy nearby, giving the latter a stir to reincorporate if need be, and reminding people to scoop from the bottom for the former.
