Roast Chicken tips -- please
 

Thought I'd borrow from the Prime Rib thread.

I was finally going to make Turkey the tradition for X-mas but when I went to Costco yesterday, they had already run out :eek::eek::eek:

I ended going back today to look for a nice slab of ham ... no go :mad:

I dragged my sorry arse around a few more islands and found full chickens ... I was not gong to get a pre-baked Costco bird.

So, what's PPOT's culinary suggestions SmileWavy
PS: Since we're almost a day ahead I've got like 15 hours until I start cooking :D

beer can!

lolo, nice. :D
I need to could the darn thing not smile at it ;)

I used this simple recipe for Roast tarragon lemon pepper chicken. Very slow cooked and was excellent: For the love of cooking: Lemon and Tarragon Roasted Chicken

I've also substituted with rosemary if you don't like tarragon.

Are you back in the states?

Targa911 is right--beer can chicken will be the most moist bird you'll ever have.

Make a compound butter with lot's of herbs. Basil, parsley, thyme and rosemary. Use more of the first two than the last two. Add a little honey and season it with salt and pepper. I use European butter, as it's a little better.

Wash the bird inside and out and pat it dry. Season it well, inside and out, with sea salt and cracked pepper. Loosen the skin over the breasts (and legs, thighs, if you have patience) with you fingers and work some of the butter under the skin. Try to cover as much area as you can and disperse it evenly. Insert a half of a lemon, half of a white onion and another sprig of rosemary and one of thyme in the cavity and truss the bird closed. Make sure you either trim the wingtips or tuck them under. Slice the other half of the onion and layer it in a roasting pan. Set the bird on that and add some white wine. Roast it about a half hour at 375 then crank the heat to 450 until it's done. Baste it and turn it occasionally. If you get any hot spots on the skin on top, cover them with foil. Use a digital meat thermometer to judge the temp. Rest the bird and make a pan sauce from the drippings.

I recommend a side of mashed potatoes with this...

JR

Jim

That sounds like a great recipe - this year with only my wife and I for Christmas, we too will be cooking a chicken. Did you prefer rosemary or tarragon when you made it?

These days, I am using a rotisserie on my grill. Works great.

What I used to do was fill the chicken (or turkey) with onions and apples, to keep it moist. You can also put in rosemary, but I use a ton on the inside (I have rosemary hedges around the house). On the outside, I dry the chicken and then rub a little butter (salted) and then put on poultry seasoning. Bake at 325 until the meat thermometer says 160. Turn off the oven and let it continue cooking until it reaches desired temp, I think 180. Pull out of oven and let it rest a few minutes on a cutting board.

Drain the oil from the pan and put into a gravy separator. Drain off the good liquid from the bottom and use with the pan dripings to make gravy. I use flour, and then use the blender to get rid of lumps.

Right now, put chicken in brine, meaning water with lots of salt (taste like seawater) and optionally 1 can froz orange juice. Soak chicken in the brine, refrigerated, for at least 4 hours and up to a day.

4 hours before dinner, remove chicken from brine, dry it off with paper towels, and return to fridge, uncovered, for an hour. Purpose is to dry the skin. Preheat oven to 350F at this time.

Then roast. Basic roasting is simply sprinkle with salt and place in roasting pan, on a rack, breast down. (To avoid overcooking breast meat) Oven stays at 350F. After 1/2 hour, turn breast up (to brown it). Brush melted butter on the bird but especially the breast, 1 or 2 times. (Butter helps brown the skin, keep breast moist, and tastes yummy). Cook to 170F temp (insert thermometer in deepest part of breast and deepest part of thigh joint).

Remove chicken from oven, cover w/ foil to rest while you prepare pan sauce.

You can jazz it up, like Dueller's post, w/ rosemary etc.

Sometimes people stuff the chicken. I prefer to make stuffing on the side, easier and don't end up overcooking the breast just to get stuffing to a safe temp.

Nope ... still on the Northern most island of Japan. My partner has got me to be good boy. :)

i did plan to stuff some kind of butter concoction in between the skin and meat ... looks like with your guy's help I'm gonna be ok this year :)

lolo, I thought the beer can was a joke.
Could somebody enlighten me?

Here ya go...beer can chicken. Just remember to open the can. My drummer didn't do that once and it shot his chicken off the grill and into the neighbors yard!.....drummers!

Making Beer Can Chicken - Take the right steps to make a great chicken

You can do it in the oven as well.

"Drunk" Chicken

Open beer can...drink 1/3 of contents. Shove beer can up chickens butt. Stand chicken up with the beer can as a base. Done mostly on charcoal grills. The beer begins to boil while the chicken is cooking and keeps it moist.l

For pan sauce, I have a different process. About 3/4 way through the roasting, drain liquid from roasting pan (precise time not important, idea is that most of the drippings have been produced by now). Remove fat using separator or careful ladling (save the fat). Pour drippings in saucepan, add some white wine (1/2 cup), heavy cream 1/2 cup). Simmer to reduce by a third or so. When chicken comes out, if there are more drippings in pan, separate fat and add to sauce.

Starting the sauce while the chicken is still roasting gives you time to thicken it by reducing, rather than with flour.

The fat, use to brown the onions, celery, etc for the stuffing that you'll make on the side.

I really like the taragon. Makes it seem more "speial" but then again I'm just a redneck camp cook:D

I even try to shove some taragon under the skin on the breast. Really permeates the meat.

ok!

brine the bird. 1 cup salt, handful of brown sugar, crush about 5 cloves of garlic, 15ish peppercorns. 4 -8 hours. i add icecubes to get it all cold with the bird.

pat bird dry! stuff with lemons. wipe on some melted butter. roasting pan with basket. 375 oven. cook until breast registers 165. bring it all out. i break down the bird into two breast, two thigh/leg parts. get oven onto broil. pour off juices and get it simmering in a saucier. lay bird pieces back in pan, and set under broiler. watch it...dont leave. about 5 minutes, the skin will be crispy! squeeze some fresh lemon in sauce. spoon it over the bird pieces. feeds 4. all the leftover chicken parts like the backbone...goes into stockpot.

Let it rest, rest, rest, rest

awesome!

I really want to try to the beer can but my dinky oven was a fight to get a small turkey in last year. So, getting drunk with bird (bird does have an English man's meaning ;) ) is not gonna happen :(

With a misture of above! My stuffing yaks ... so apples, onions and rosemary on the inside.

I put the turkey into a brine solution last year ... and it really came out juicy. Does this have the same affect on chickens?

JYL did bring up an excellent point! Breast down on first pass. This seems to send the juices downwards into the breasts.

OHHHH, I am having problems ... had a can too many :) and the word in the above sentences is causing me to have attention problems. lolo

I found this recipe on the net several years ago. It is dirt simple & excellent. And very, very moist . . .

Ian

Roast Sticky Chicken

This recipe is a great way to roast a large chicken. It is reminiscent of those rotisserie-style chickens that are so popular now, and it is very easy to make. The meat comes out very moist and flavorful, so it is as good leftover as freshly cooked. You need to start this the night before serving.

4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
I tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 large roasting chicken, as big as you can find
1 cup chopped onion

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices. Remove giblets from chicken, clean the cavity well and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin. Place in a resealable plastic bag, seal and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to roast chicken, stuff cavity with onions, and place in a shallow baking pan. Roast, uncovered, at 250 degrees for 5 hours (yes, 250 degrees for 5 hours). After the first hour, baste chicken occasionally (every half hour or so) with pan juices. The pan juices will start to caramelize on the bottom of pan and the chicken will turn golden brown. If the chicken contains a pop-up thermometer, ignore it. Let chicken rest about 10 minutes before carving.

You can make a spicy gravy from the drippings.

Yes, brining works on chicken, turkey, even lamb and pork. Flavour stuff is optional (like vash uses different stuff than I do) but the key is the salt water. Start it now, your 15 hours are ticking away.

Vash's way of roasting, then breaking down and broiling, is pretty cool. No doubt, that will give you great skin.

Of course, you could go all the way in that direction. Break down the chicken first, to two breasts and two leg/thighs. Brine. Dry. Salt. Brown in a hot iron skillet or similar. Then transfer legs to oven and start roasting. After 15 minutes, add breast. Roast to a bit below desired temp. If skin not crisp enough, broil per vash.

I love crisp chicken skin. Last chicken I cooked, we removed the skin after cooking, used torch to finish crisping, then cut it in strips and ate like chips.

I bet your cardiologist loves you:D