[georgia]

Having just finished our Sunday supper roast chicken, my favorite meal, I wonder if we could ever come to a consensus of the best way to roast a chicken. Most chefs would say that if you can't roast a decent chicken, you can't call yourself a decent cook, but there the agreement stops. There must be a hundred different ways to come up with a fine roasted chicken. What's yours?

I have had success at each end of the spectrum: long roasting at low temps, short roasting at high temps. The bird turns out somewhat differently, but it's always delicious. The Zuni Cafe variety (salted for 2 days, roasted at very high temperature for about an hour) is fabulous, but I often don't think ahead 2 days to salt, etc. If I don't, salting just before roasting and roasting at high heat still produces succulence.

In fact, it seems that every way works just fine. Please share your favorite way to roast a chicken. We may all learn something.

P.S. You folks with access to birds from Bresse have an unfair advantage! THAT'S the best bird I ever roasted (during a summer's stay in Paris), but I can't claim the credit. Chickie was great to begin with!

[David]

My favourite way to roast a chicken is to rub the whole bird inside and out with salt and olive oil. Tuck sprigs of fresh rosemary under the skin and crush a few into the cavity. Chop up several cloves of fresh garlic and shove unde the skin. Put several unpeeled cloves in the cavity. Roast at about 350 covered for about an hour. Baste a few times during this period. Uncover the bird and roast for about another hour until skin is golden and slightly crisp. Let set for 15 minutes. Carve and serve with the juices and the roasted garlic.
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[Barbara]

I always use the best organic chicken you can buy, massage with EVO, sprinkle generously with Maldon salt and bake breast side down at 210 degress for 1 hour. Okay so you don't get the yummy roasted breast skin, but you do get nice moist breast meat.

I'm going to try the Zuni Café recipe. Ilike the idea of salting it 2 days prior to roasting.
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Barbara

[georgia]

Barbara, assuming you have the Zuni Cafe Cookbook to which you can refer, I highly recommend making the bread salad recipe that goes with the roast chicken. How this combination of ordinary ingredients results in such incredible tastes is beyond me.

The Zuni chicken recipe is exactly as the dish appears/tastes at the restaurant, which I think is extraordinarily generous of Judy Rogers. The only difference is that the restaurant uses a wood-fired oven, which most of us don't have at home, but the home result is close enough to satisfy.

As JR says, the chicken is all about technique, the bread salad is all about recipe. Try to have as much prepared ahead as you are able; it goes together at the last minute.

(FYI, if anyone is wondering, this bread "salad" is nothing like panzanella. No tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. It's currants, pine nuts, toasty bread chunks, a handful of greens, served warm with the chicken.)

[bluedog]

As it would be, I just last night roasted my first chicken since the cool weather started. This time I loosely followed Jamie Oliver's Fantastic Roasted Chicken. Garlic-herb butter rubbed in, on and under (this time sage was chosen). Stuffed with lemons/onions. Extra onion and garlic cloves in the pan, to provide for the roasted garlic gravy. On high heat for 1.5 hours. Was divine.

[Donna]

I always brine my chicken for a good hour (Or more depending on it's weight). I use various herbs - fresh or dried , depdnding on what I have - and maple syrup. I think brining contributes to a crisper skin.

A nice herbed butter under the skin also contributes to a nice, juicy chicken. Rainey posted a recipe not long ago with a butter, mustard and herb combo that was a treat. Gave the meat a lovely little pop of flavor! I've used Tony Bourdain's recipe for red wine butter also in my chicken.

Another thing I enjoy is preserved lemons stuffed in the cavity. Remove them after baking, dicard the meat of the lemon, julienne the peels and use as a garnish on your green veg or your mashed potatoes. Beautiful AND tasty!
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L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

[Rainey]

Oooo, Donna- That sounds like a lovely thing to do with the prettiest jar of preserved lemons I was lucky enough to get from a most generous lady. Can't wait to have an oven to try it!
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[Barbara]

Thanks Georgia I will try the salad as I do have the book. Because I don't have a wood fired oven I've avoided her roast chicken recipe up until now.
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Barbara

[jojube]

Hi Georgia,

I refer to the Venetian Style Ghetto chicken from Nigella's How to eat. It's really wonderful. Just roast a chicken, use the juices of the chicken, mix in some butter, pinenuts and rosemary. Cook tagliatelle and pluck the chicken. Wisk the chicken and juices through the tagliatelle and u r done.
It might be on her website, if you don't have the book!

Enjoy,

Job
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[CathyT]

I hope you don't mind my jumping in, but a friend just told me about a divine roasted chicken recipe that I am looking forward to trying - she said it's from Ruth Reichl's cookbook. The interesting part was that in addition to putting lemons in the cavity, Reichl advises removing the glob of fat that you always find on a chicken and putting it between the skin and the breasts. Even though the oven temp is 400 degrees, my friend said the chicken was very moist - and her kids gobbled up the potatoes that roasted under the chicken. Hopefully my friend will get me a copy of the recipe soon - I can post it if anyone is interested.

Cathy
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[Franca]

Bluedog, you must've seen the same episode of Jamie Oliver as me! I'm big on herbed butter, especially under the skin.

I also like butter mixed with fig, garlic and lemon juice rubbed under the skin too, with garlic, the leftover squeezed lemon cut up, and two bay leaves in the cavity. Simple, but yummy. And yes, cooked at 350 for just over an hour.
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[brighidsdaughter]

This is my "standard" roast chicken recipe. I use chickens that weigh about 4.5 lbs & usually do 2 at a time.

Rinse & dry chickens, season inside & out with salt, pepper & poultry seasoning. In the cavity of each chicken, put a few sprigs of rosemary, a handful of unpeeled garlic cloves & about 2 oz. of butter.

Put chickens into a roasing pan breast-up & cook in preheated 450 F oven for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350. Baste a few times, using pan drippings, til birds are done & skin is deep golden brown, 25-30 min per pound. Remove birds from pan & let rest while gravy gets done.

Make gravy from the strained pan juices, using some of the garlic (peeled & mashed), with some of the drippings as fat & a little flour to thicken.

Cathy, I like your suggestion of putting the natural fat under the breast skin. Will have to try that next time I roast chicken.

[David]

Yeah, CathyT that idea of using the extra fat under the breast skin makes great sense---would never have thought of doing that--generally I just chuck the hunk out.

Please post the recipe you referred too
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Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[isis]

Roasted chicken in the pressure cooker is most wonderful.

Use a minimum amount of liquid, I used 1/4 cup of white wine and a cup of chicken stock. Sliced onion and a whole head of garlic along with some fresh sprigs of parsley salt and pepper. It takes 15 - 20 minutes. It stays moist and all that flavour and nutrients trapped in the cooker. Oh yeah! Admitedly i miss the browned chicken skin which always looks appealing but I never eat it anyway.

Isis.
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If it looks good, feels good and tastes good then it must be good!

[pistache]

Although I say it myself, I do a wonderful roast chicken... I rub the flesh with rock salt and thyme, and pop a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme into the cavity with a lemon cut in half. I heat some olive oil in a Le Creuset cocotte and brown it on all sides on the stove top. Then it goes into a hot oven, breast side down for 20 mins or so... Then I turn it breast side up, pour a little water in to the pan juices and add 40 unpeeled cloves of garlic, and drizzle the whole dish with more olive oil... It carries on cooking for another 45 mins or so... then I take the pan out of the oven and leave it rest, breast side down, whilst I prepare croutons for people to squish the garlic cloves on to...

Just that chicken, with a green salad, has made many people very happy !