Roasting a Pollo Rosso

[Robenco15]

Hi All,

So today I picked up a gorgeous Pollo Rosso heritage bird. Guest coming over tomorrow so I was going to do TK's roasted chicken and root vegetables.

I got the bird because it looked great and was 4 pounds so it would be a perfect size for 4 people. Then I went out and got all of the ingredients for the dish. Now I'm researching more about the bird I got and I'm learning that a Pollo Rosso is better if cooked at a lower heat and slowly.

Regardless, I am roasting this bird with the vegetables. However, instead of doing the 475F for 20 and then 400F for 40, I'm thinking I should adjust these temperatures.

How do you guys recommend I adjust for the bird but still get the carmelized vegetables? 350F for 90 minutes? 475F for 20, but then 350F to temperature?

Just say screw it and follow the recipe? What could really go wrong?

The bird is currently salted and on the top shelf of my fridge drying out.

I also have an oven probe thermometer for the chicken so getting knowing when it will be done won't be a problem. Just finding a happy medium of not to high of heat, but still getting a good roasted bird, is what I'm looking for.

[jvalentino]

Funny I just came across this video today where Heston Blumenthol roast a chicken low and slow. Hope it helps.

http://youtu.be/EgU-WycA54I

[Robenco15]

Do you think turnips, rutabagas, potatoes, and carrots would carmelize in at that temp. and time?

[gfweb]

I braise short ribs at 300F x 2.5 hrs and the veg caramelize a little.

You could always do them separately at higher temp.

I like HBs low temp roast...almost sous vide.

[Robenco15]

I could do them separately, but I think the fat dripping from the chicken onto the vegetables is the allure of this dish. So I would have to roast them with butter and oil to a point, then add the chicken and do the low temp. cooking (200F). Would a lot of fat then render at this lower temperature? Not sure how useful the fat would be towards the vegetables when I do the 500F for 10 minutes to crisp the skin.

[David Hensley]

You could always blast your vegetables separately say, 475 for 10-12 minutes, then add them to the chicken for a low and slow finish...

[Mjx]

Before putting the root vegetables in the oven, microwave them until they're pretty much cooked through, and have released most of the moisture they're going to give off, then most of the time they spend in the oven they'll be browning/caramelizing.

I roast chickens at 375F (190C) for 15 minutes on each side, and finish with 20 to 25 minutes at 450F (230F), which gives consistently excellent results, and should give you a fair amount of flexibility regarding when/how long you have your pre-cooked vegetables roasting.

[ChrisTaylor]

Do you think turnips, rutabagas, potatoes, and carrots would carmelize in at that temp. and time?

No.

But the thing about the bird cooked at the lower temperature is you can pull it from the oven, crank the heat and then roast your vegetables, returning the chicken in the last few minutes to crisp the skin. I have done this before successfully. We're talking a matter of, what, 45-60 minutes out of the oven. It'll be fine. And that rest will allow the internal temp to drop a little--a good idea if you're going to place the bird in a screaming hot oven, right? You don't want the high heat to carry the bird above that low internal temperature you carefully brought the breasts up to.

A word of warning on the Blumenthal roasting method, though: the temperatures he suggests are perfect for breasts but the thighs at that low temperature are disgusting. Toxic? No. But inedible nonetheless. If I was to repeat this method I'd remove the legs from the rest of the carcass and keep them in the oven a while longer. A lot of people like 60C for the breasts and 65C or so for the thighs. If you accidentally let the thighs creep up to 68C they'll still be good. Just remember to keep the legs splayed like Blumenthal says. Trussing is not helpful.

If the advice with this particular bird--and I'm totally unfamiliar with the kind of chicken you're talking about--is to go low and slow I'd stick to that. I'm a fan of a dry 'brine'/high temprature roast for chicken--it's my go-to method--but I'd heed whatever advice I was given if I'd coughed up for some fancy pants bullshit bird. I guess my mind jumps to 'road runner'--vastly superior to even the most expensive organic bird I've had here but not something that'd stand up to the usual 170C-220C temperature range.

Give the vegies a kick start by heating the oil/animal fat on the stove.

EDIT

I am not a fan of roasting vegetables much above 180C. I don't think they respond well to such aggressive temperatures as 220.

Edited February 23, 2014 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Robenco15]

So I started the vegetables on the stove top and then put them in a hot oven (400+F) for 15 minutes. Then I dropped the temp. to 325F and put the chicken in for around 90 minutes.

At this point I am so thankful for my thermocouple. I had to set my oven at 370F to keep it at a consistent 325F. I also didn't have to worry about my bird overcooking for undercooking.

I was under a bit of a time crunch so I couldn't do Heston's method. I figured 325F for 90 minutes to get to 150F was low and slow enough for what I could manage.

Then I took the bird out to let it cool down and cranked the oven to 500. Put the veggies back in to carmelize more, then cranked it to 550F and put the chicken in to brown. My oven basically stayed around 450F to 500F during this time because of all of the open and closing the door and I only put the bird in for 10 minutes so I never gave it a chance to get to 550F.

It turned out fantastic. The breast was basically perfect. I could find a little fault with it, but that's me. Overall it was amazing and the best bird I've ever had. Next time I might try TK's recipe verbatim to see how much of a difference this 90 minute method makes. Regardless, vegetables were beautifully caramelized and everything turned out great. The taste was amazing.

Thanks for all of the helpful ideas in finding out the best way to do this!

Edit: Massaging the inside with thyme and crushed garlic (Keller's recipe) did such an amazing job that I wasn't really expecting. Also salting it over night and letting it sit on the top shelf of my fridge really did wonders. So, so good.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Robenco15 (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

The salt rub + fridge dry technique became part of my go-to method after I first tried it. Works well for other things, too--it's not just a chicken technique.

[Robenco15]

The salt rub + fridge dry technique became part of my go-to method after I first tried it. Works well for other things, too--it's not just a chicken technique.

Yeah, in retrospect I don't know why I phrased the sentence the way I did. I've been doing that salt and fridge technique for around a year now. Chicken and meats.