I should say, “Place chicken in box, on rack, orifice side down.”
And the charcoal goes in the bottom of the box, under the rack.
Ah yes, and you want to be able to close the box to reserve the heat, so line the flaps too.
I certainly didn’t mean to sound snippy, it’s just that aluminum doesn’t melt at those sorts of temperatures. If it did, they wouldn’t make pots and pans out of it. After all, the thickness of something doesn’t have anything to do with the melting point. That’s why the “of course.” As for the hostility, I didn’t think it *
was* hostile. If I’d thought it was, I would have rewritten it.
1 whole roaster
4-6 medium white potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 medium onion (white or yellow), peeled and quartered
2 carrots, peeled and cut into long narrow strips
1 or 2 ribs of celery, broken into 4 pieces
Poultry seasoning
Extra rosemary
Spray large roasting pan with PAM or other non-stick spray. Lay potato slices in an even layer in the bottom of pan. Remove giblets & neck from chicken cavity, set aside. Wash chicken inside and out. Remove excess fat deposits and pinfeathers. Put chicken on top of potatoes. Loosen breast skin and place excess chicken fat between breast meat and skin. The breast meat tends to be dry and flavorless, and this helps prevent that. Put three of the onion quarters inside main body cavity. Put other onion quarter in neck cavity. Season chicken well with poultry seasoning (and extra rosemary, if desired). Arrange carrot and celery pieces around chicken. Add about 1 cup of water or chicken broth. Cover. Roast at 375 F until done. I don’t know how long it takes, but I generally allow a couple of hours for this dish. I just check the meat thermometer and take the chicken out when the thermometer reads “Poultry”. Generally I uncover the dish when I think it’ll be done in half an hour, if I think of it, so that the skin will brown, but that step is not essential.
Wash neck and giblets. Put neck and giblets, except for liver, in a small saucepan with water to cover. Simmer until done. Some people add seasoning and perhaps a chopped onion, but I don’t. Use as chicken broth.
Fry chicken liver in butter. Serve to husband, who thinks it’s a treat. Watch in amusement as he fights the cat (who also thinks it’s a treat) for it.
This roast chicken dish makes flavorful, tender, moist chicken, without added fat. The potatoes are simply lovely, they soak up the chicken flavor. The carrots and celery add a lot of flavor, and we always fight over the carrots. Don’t put more than three carrots in this dish, though, or it will be much too sweet. This is very nearly a complete meal as is. Side dishes can include a tossed green salad with oil and vinegar dressing, rolls/biscuits/cornbread, and possibly fresh fruit for dessert.
I do not season my dishes with salt and pepper as I cannot eat pepper, and my husband and daughter dislike salty foods. However, this dish would probably be improved by adding a bit of salt and pepper. The potatoes, at least, need some salt at the table.
It’s too hot to turn the oven on now, but I make this dish a lot in the wintertime. On the second day, I pull the meat off the carcass and throw the skin and bones in a big pot of water, so I can make some chicken broth. I’ll need the broth for chicken and dumplings, which everyone insists on having after the roast chicken.
Not to derail this further but aluminum can body will melt if not handled properly. I’m not being braggy but my dad is one of the leading inventors and patent holders of aluminum can body and compounds in the country right now (he works for one of the big 3 aluminum companies) and I get all sorts of lectures on aluminum safety so he is my citation for this. If you want, I can ask him about the science of it and get back to you.
Here’s the world’s easiest gourmet chicken recipie. Just don’t let anyone see how you made it if you want to take credit for hours of slicing, dicing and slaving in a hot kitchen.
Take one or two boneless chicken breasts, put in casserole dish. Open one can of “Dei Fratelli Chopped Italian Tomatoes, Herbs and Olive Oil” and dump over it. Cover dish, bake in oven for 45 minutes at 350F. Serve over rice or pasta. If pasta, have grated parmesan cheese available.
If the breasts are frozen, add 15 minutes to the cook time. If you can’t get Dei Fratelli brand, diced or stewed tomatoes are pretty good. The “Chopped Mexican” version of the Dei Fratelli brand is good, too; just a little spicier.
A bachelor special.
By the way, I know it’s crazy that I get lectures on aluminum safety but the man is an eccentric genius who invents stuff in our dungeon-like basement. Anyway…my recipe…
Healthy Citrus Cornish Hens
Butter spray/olive oil
Chopped rosemary
Honey
Orange juice
Cornish Hens
An orange quarter
Rub cornish hens all over with butter spray and olive oil. Sprinkle with rosemary and stuff some underneath skin. Marinade with honey/butter/orange juice mixture. Stuff orange quarter inside cornish hen and cook per time listed on the plastic cover your cornish hen came in. Baste with marinade mixture as necessary. Occasionally spray with butter spray and make sure to rotate the hen so the bottom gets browned and cooked as well.
Serve with a salad.
Most grocery stores now sell whole roasted chickens. These guys are delicious but they’re expensive. However, they are cheap if you buy the day old cold chicken (as low as $2.99 for a whole chicken!)
So my secret to easy chicken, is whole roasted day old cold chicken from the grocery store for any recipe that calls for shredded chicken.
Easy enchiladas:
The meat of 1 whole chicken shredded
1 jar salsa
1 bag cheddar or mix cheese
1/2 small onion (optional)
1 can enchilada sauce or the new baking sauce- I prefer tomatilla (green) sauce
Corn tortillas
Chop and sauté onion until soft add meat and salsa. Cook to warm through.
Transfer to bowl. Add 3/4 bag cheese.
Add half can of enchilada sauce to bottom of baking dish.
Warm tortillas according to directions on bag.
Spoon meat mixture in tortillas place in pan edges down.
Pour remaining enchilada sauce over top. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top.
Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.
Serve with shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes sprinkled on top, and a generous dollop of guacamole and sour cream.
Easy chicken pie
The meat of 1 whole chicken shredded
One can chicken broth
1 bag peas and carrots thawed
1/2 small onion
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
Prepared crust for two crust pie
spices to taste ( use salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, but really you could use pepper only or none at all)
Heat butter in a pan over medium heat until melted, Add onion and cook until soft.
Add flour and spices. Stir to pasty consistency remove from heat.
Add broth and milk and stir in thoroughly.
Place back on heat and stir to bubbly.
Add chicken and vegetables.
Preheat oven to 425
Add one pastry to bottom of un-greased casserole dish or deep pie pan.
– Here my trick use it if you want but it’s not necessary- Prick the bottom crust with a fork several times. Place in oven for about 5 minutes until crust is lightly brown. This prevents the bottom crust from getting too mushy.–
Pour chicken mixture on crust.
Place remaining crust on top, pressing the edges together. Cut vent holes in top crust.
Place dish on cookie sheet to catch any drippings.
Bake for 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
-
Marinate chicken in equal parts balsamic vinegar, honey and olive oil. Add salt, pepper and fresh rosemary.
After a few hours, grill or bake. -
White Trash Chicken.
One for the kids or easily impressed non-foodie folk.
Dry tender pieces or boneless/skinless.
Dip in bottled alfredo.
Roll in canned parmesan with pepper and basil.
Bake 45 mins to an hour-until browned. -
Simmer chicken in pinot grigio and fresh minced garlic.
Reduce.
When there’s a bit of wine left in the pan, add fresh torn spinach. Wilt slightly.
Add grated parmesan cheese.
At 400 degrees Fahrenheit? I’d be very much interested in the science of that, if you don’t mind asking him about it. My email’s in my profile.
This is dead easy, healthy and makes a very moist, yummy chicken. It smells fabulous while baking, and the leftovers are delicious on salads and make great sandwiches.
2 lemons, peeled
6-8 (or more, lots more) cloves garlic, peeled
a few sprigs of rosemary, optional
oil, salt and pepper
1 roasting chicken
Preheat oven to 350. Wash and dry the chicken thoroughly, removing all excess fat. Lightly salt and pepper the cavity, then stuff in the bald lemons, garlic cloves and rosemary if using it. Lightly oil the outside of the bird and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put it in a roasting pan, and bake for a hour or so until the meat thermometer reads in the safe zone and the skin is all nice and golden brown.
Scoop everything out of the bird’s cavity, then remove the chicken to a platter to stay warm.
Discard the lemons and rosemary, then pour the pan juices into a container to skim off the excess fat. Mush the cooked garlic cloves into the pan juices. (They won’t taste strongly garlicky, just slightly sweet and wonderful.) Serve on the side with the sliced chicken.
D’uh! I just noticed Beadalin already posted almost exactly the same recipe. Sorry. Brain fart.
Veb
But adding the garlic is good. Garlic is always good.
Teriyaki Chicken
Get 3 - 4 chicken thighs and cut into about 1 inch cubes. Get 1 onion and cut into 1/4 inch strips. Marinate the entire thing in teriyaki marinade for at least 1 hr (pref overnight). Get a non-stick pan and dump 1/2 the chicken in the pan (without any marinade) and let it cook until all the juice in the pan has dried out and you get a nice brownish/black crusty coating on the chicken. Repeat for the 2nd half and then serve the entire thing over a bed of rice.
Just to answer the sub thing going on…yeah, I was bummed at CCL’s response – only because I was honestly just asking for clarification and I got a Duh…type thing. However, the subsquent replies are what the board is all about – just fighting ignorance and not throwing darts at a “dumb” question.
This is not a recipe for a chicken dish, but I use it to have cooked chicken on hand for other recipes. It takes time, but not too much hands on time, so sometimes I do three or four of these on a weekend, and then freeze the meat for later.
You need one frying chicken. Put enough water to cover the chicken in a pot and bring it to a boil. Put the chicken in until the water stops boiling, then take out the chicken. This seals the chicken and keeps it juicy. Bring the water back to a boil, put the chicken back in, cover it, and take it off the heat. Let it sit for a hour or more. (The original recipe says an hour, but mine usually take longer than that. I think it’s because they start colder or something. You also need to make sure there is plenty of water, not just barely enough to cover.) Take the chicken out, discard the water. Let the chicken cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and cut it into pieces. This is the juiciest, tastiest chicken meat I’ve ever seen. I use it a lot for anything that calls for cooked chicken. And since it’s already cut, you can throw it into the pan frozen and go from there.
(I got this one from the Frug.)
Chicken Rice in the crock pot.
This is a great way to use leftover chicken!
About a pound of chicken (give or take)
1 and 1/2 cups brown rice
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can low-sodium chicken broth
1-2 cups frozen veggies of your choice (I like peas and carrots)
A little salt, pepper, garlic, whatever you like.
Put all ingredients into your crock pot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. If possible, stir periodically and check to see if you need to add more chicken broth. (I say “if possible”, because you might put this on to cook before you leave the house for the day; if this is the case, you might want to add a little extra broth and stir well just prior to serving). The longer you cook this, the more everything just sort of melds together. It’s almost a stew.
That’s called a poached chicken. Really nice in chicken salad sandwiches and the like.