Easy Roast Chicken
I mostly steer away from the rotisserie chickens at Costco and the various supermarkets, due to my allergies. But there's nothing as satisfyingly easy to make as a roasted chicken, plus you have tons of leftovers and the start of a good stock to boot. When I read the latest recipe in the NYTimes:
Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken With Crispy Drippings Croutons I knew I wanted to give it a spin, I immediately modified it. There are a huge variety of different recipes on how to cook a chicken. Having experimented with a few over the years, I have my own opinion based on the ever so straight forward Joy of Cooking and tweaked slightly to meet my own need for a succulent and juicy chicken.
To wash or not may be a debate for some people. I've found too many interesting things on my chicken carcass to question- wash entirely, pat dry, salt liberally. Preheat the oven to a high temp- 450oF. Normally I make an herb lattice (rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage- whatever is at hand) to protect skin from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Once in the oven drop the temp to 350oF (cooking time is calculated at 20 min per lb plus 10 minutes resting). This time I'm using bread to stop sticking, altho I wanted smaller portions of the carb, and diced the bread into cubes for greater surface area to volume ratio. My oven runs hot and so there's no way the bread could make it through the whole cooking time. But I did want to take advantage of the drippings to create a crunchy intensely meaty dressing, my solution was to create a hybrid of the two methods- with the added bonus that the herbs add tons of flavor to the croutons.
Time: 1 hour, plus 10 minutes resting
sturdy Acme herb slab, cubed 1/2-inch thick (stale)
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 apple peeled/cored
1 Tbs oregano
2 tsps kosher salt,
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper,
2-3 pound chicken,
12 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1/2 bunch thyme & rosemary sprigs
1. Preheat oven to 450oF. Cut the bread into largish cubes. Macerate the apple, 1 clove of garlic, oregano & olive oil (I use the mini chopper attachment of my immersion blender). Toss with the bread liberally coating each piece. Sprinkle with salt.
2. Rub apple mixture, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 tsp pepper inside cavity of chicken. Stuff cavity with garlic, bay leaf, lemon and thyme. Lay a lattice of herbs down in skillet, place chicken breast side down.
3. Drop temp to 350oF and roast chicken for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, toss bread in skillet to pick up juices. Lay in one layer. Place chicken breast side up on the bread. Return to oven and roast ~25 minutes until it is deeply browned and juices run clear (check the temp it should be ~150-155oF), about 60 minutes total (depending on weight of bird).
4. Let rest for 10 minutes (internal temp will continue to rise to ~160oF) before carving (I actually use kitchen shears, less fiddly). Split the carcass into breasts, thigh/leg combo, back with wings attached. Serve chicken with bread from pan. Deeply flavorful, crispy croutons with chickeny goodness.