Or pay a visit to your local charcoal chicken shop!
Because I am so eminently suggestible, I had to make a roasted chicken this weekend after seeing this thread. I made it in a Superwave oven, with a butter/lemon/garlic/rosemary/salt/pepper mixture spread on it and lemon and rosemary in the cavity. Turned it a couple of times, basted it a couple of times. It was delicious. Then yesterday I made sour cream green chile chicken enchiladas with the leftovers, and that was also delicious. You can still very much taste the lemon and rosemary on the chicken. I’m thinking roasted chicken may have to become a weekly thing at my house.
Sorry, I wash the chicken, then I go over it again with needle nosed pliers [I have one that I keep in the kitchen for food use.] to remove any leftover pin feathers or ‘hairs’. [same pliers can be used to remove fish bones. I always double check any filets I get - amazing how many tiny bones end up getting found =) ] and if you clean up your work surfaces, you don’t get cross contamination. [was that my food service training coming out =)]
Occasionally I like to do a whole chicken in a clay pot, I do a killer ‘greek’ chicken. You soak the rommertopf in water, and inside the chicken I shove a quartered onion, a quartered fresh or salted lemon, sprigs of thyme, and oregano and I rub the bird down with a ‘salad dressing’ sort of blend of olive oil, cracked pepper, lemon juice and make sure that there is about half a cup of water mixed with some white wine. Been making it like this since the late 70s.
I’m a pretty damn good cook if I do say so myself, but I’ve never, ever had success with chicken. The outside seems perfect, but the inside is always undercooked. Gets me every time.
I’m willing to give it another go with one of these receipes, though. Question: how do you know when the chicken is dry enough prior to roasting?
I always use this Martha Stewart recipe and it works flawlessly!
For the high heat roasting, I just dab it with paper towels until it just looks dry enough.
Use a meat thermometer to test doneness. That’s the only way that is absolutely foolproof the first time. I’ve cooked without a thermometer for most my life, but it usually takes a few roasts before I can eyeball a time correctly. Don’t stress yourself out and just buy a probe meat thermometer.
Breast side up, like in the picture.
For those of us who subscribe to the dry (drier! it can be drier!) theory that a dry bird gives you a better crispy skin, here are two additional tips:
[ul]
[li]After you thoroughly dry the bird inside and out (don’t forget the inside), put it in the freezer uncovered for maybe half an hour right before cooking. It won’t get chilled enough to make any difference, but the freezer has very low humidity and will dry the skin nicely.[/li][li]A little rub of baking soda also dries it out. Don’t overdo it, though, or you’ll have a baking soda crust.[/li][/ul]