Preparing Poultry for Cooking

Oven-ready birds need very little preparation. If necessary, trim off any stubby feathers, remove the giblets from the cavity if you haven’t already done so, then wipe the bird dry with kitchen paper, both inside and outside.

In general, if the recipe allows, I prefer to cook chicken with its skin on. The skin contains a lot of flavour and leaving it on helps to keep the flesh beneath moist and succulent.

To remove the skin, if the recipe requires it, simply loosen the skin with your fingers, then pull it off. It should peel off quite easily.