A reader asked how I roast a chicken. This question took me by surprise. First, there are no dumb questions but roasted chicken is one of the first things I made as a young wife. I don’t even remember how I did it way back then but (1) chickens were very inexpensive back then and (2) I could season that rascal up, stick it in the oven and go sew! Therefore, we had roasted chicken probably at least twice a week. Poor husband . . no wonder things turned out like they did! 🙁
Then I started thinking . . I just roast it. Do I even do it correctly? Do I want to tell anyone how I do it? I decided to do a bit of research to make sure I wasn’t doing some really weird method of roasting a chicken.
For me, basically, I season it, stuff whatever I can find that looks interesting in the cavity and cook it. 🙂
Here’s a website with instructions that’s pretty much exactly what I do. I rarely truss the chicken . . can’t even remember the last time I did. She cooks hers at 400 to 425 for a bit over an hour. If I have bread to bake at the same time, or a casserole, I might put the bread in first and keep the temp at 350, then bump it up after the bread is done or if I have a casserole, I might cook the chicken at 400 for 40 minutes, then stick the casserole in and turn the temp down to 375 for another 30 or 40 minutes. For me, so long as the internal temp of the thickest part of the thigh is at 165, it doesn’t matter how I got there. I almost always switch to convection near the end to crisp up the skin.
Speaking of roasted chicken, back when Chad was in elementary school and we were in Kentucky, which had to be almost 25 years ago, my mom gave me the recipe for Sticky Chicken. Oh, my . . I LOVE this recipe and I made it so much that both Chad and Vince threatened to run away from home if I ever made it again. I do not like white pepper so I always left that out and yes, it bakes for 5 hours. I made it so much that I took a jar and did like 15 x everything and shook it up so I could just grab about 10 teaspoons of seasoning out of the one jar and not have to get all the spice containers out. It’s always so tender and so juicy and so full of flavor.
I wonder if Vince would remember that he’s going to run away from home if I ever make it again!
Rebecca says
That looks delicious! I was afraid it was going to be sweet (the “sticky” part), which you probably know already would not work with my husband. I think I have to try it! It will require more planning than I usually do. 😉
Some unlikely sounding things work out so well. We tried a recipe from a Sunset cookbook years ago that we still have. It involves roasting a chicken in a grill(indirect heat) while basting it with sake! It makes a crisp, brown, tasty skin.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That sounds good too. Thanks for that idea!
Rebecca says
We also stuff the chicken with one cup each cilantro (oh, Vince doesn’t like that, does he?) and celery leaves, 8 2-inch sprigs rosemary (or 3/4 tsp dried), and 1/4 cup sake, and let it sit for an hour.
I think once we did it in the oven without the stuffing; just the sake baste. Still good!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Thanks! I’m going to try this (no . . not use cilantro though I would love it!)