[jyl]

I'd like to get really good at roasting chickens. My goal is moist breast meat with some additional flavour, crisp browned skin, in 2 hours or less.

Anyone have a favorite technique?

Last week I tried:
- Separate breast skin from breast meat, place bacon in the "pocket" under the skin, completely covering the breast meat
- Peel two lemons and place in cavity, pin cavity closed w/ toothpicks
- Pat chicken dry w/ paper towels, then rub with salt
- Roast at 400F, first breast down then breast up, basting 2X with melted butter, until deepest path of thigh is 170F, then breast up under the broiler for 5 minutes
- Remove chicken to rest, pour and scrape out all the pan drippings, remove the fat, make sauce from drippings with some cream
- Result was good, particularly tasty sauce

Tonight I am trying:
- Cut fat from the inside of the cavity, chop it up, mix with softened butter, panchetta, and chopped rosemary
- Separate breast skin from breast meat, place mixture in the "pocket" under the skin, completely covering the breast meat
- Peel two limes and place in cavity, pin cavity closed w/ toothpicks
- Pat chicken dry w/ paper towels, then rub with salt and cornstarch
- Roast at 400F, first breast down then breast up, basting 2X with melted butter, until deepest path of thigh is 170F, then breast up under the broiler for 5 minutes
- Remove chicken, retrieve the pan drippings, de-fat, make sauce with some cream and maybe some Grand Marnier
- We'll see what the result is

I'm particularly looking for techniques involving glazing of the skin. I would also like an excuse to use my torch.