Cockerel for the Christmas Table
Our whole cockerel makes a generous alternative to turkey, with plenty of breast meat and darker, more richly flavoured legs. Choose from three sizes, with birds suited to anything from a smaller Christmas table to a proper family gathering.

The meat has more structure and depth than a standard roasting chicken, whilst still remaining succulent when properly cooked and rested. It works very well with the familiar Christmas trimmings: roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, proper gravy and Val Warner’s Easy Bread Sauce.

Roast it traditionally or pot-roast it for something softer and more yielding. Each cockerel comes with its giblets, which are well worth using for gravy or stock.

Chef George Ryle Inspires
“If you’re feeling the urge to shake things up even more, then this bird gives you plenty of options. Perhaps this is the year for putting an Italian slant on your festive proceedings.

Prepare a stuffing of pork and veal mince, diced mortadella, chopped rosemary, nutmeg and a healthy mound of grated Parmesan. Stuff the cavity of the bird and then lay it in a roasting tray surrounded with peeled chestnuts.

Add a couple of glasses of Marsala and the same amount of chicken stock. Roast for 2–3 hours at 160°C. Serve with lentils braised in red wine and stock, roasted pumpkin and kale, or cavolo nero sautéed with garlic. After resting the bird, the roasting tray will be full of the most delicious liquid. Thicken it with a little flour for a gravy to rival all others.”