Rotisserie Chicken at Home

[Adam Balic]

Tommorow I shall be using the rotisserie on my new oven for the first time. Here is your chance to suggest a recipe for a Rotisserie Chicken (actually two chickens, so the more suggestions the better).

Ideas on what to stick under the chicken (eg. like those lovely potatoes one sees in French markets) to use the chicken juicings would also be good.

All suggestions considered.

[Jim Dixon]

Make a paste of herbs, salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil and force it under the skin (the breast is easy, but I usually make a small slit to get it under the back...Judith loves the backs). Rub some on the outside, too. Use a lot, more than you think you need.

Jim

ps...brine chicken first, too...

[Adam Balic]

Thanks Jim. Off to buy Chicken.

[Varmint]

I'd almost say to keep it as simple as possible on the first go-around, Adam. Discover how satisfying a dish rotisserie chicken can be without a lot of externalities. Butter, S&P, maybe a bit of garlic. Roast some root veggies in the drip pan to create a good flavor in the drippings. Enjoy. Then experiment with different flavors and techniques.

Oh, and do brine the bird, please!

[DaveFaris]

so how did it turn out?

[Adam Balic]

OK, I went to the supermarket (UK, Sainsbury's) and bought a 1.8 kilo free range chicken. This was the most expensive chicken in a selection of about 50 birds. Due to limited herbs etc in the supermarket I modified Jim's suggestion to make a batto to stuff under the skin:

Batto contained: Pancetta, tarragon, fennel seeds, carrot, celery leaves, garlic, salt and pepper.

Batto placed under skin of breast and thighs.

Chicken roasted for 2 hour on medium grill setting. Chicken was very tender, moist and had almost no flavour (except for the bits in direct contact with batto). Not even the legs. God damn supermarkets and their God damn rapidly matured, flavourless, sodding chickens.

Didn't have time to brine, but even brining would have only have made this chicken taste of mild cured meat, rather then enhanced the flavour of the chicken. I have no idea how this chicken was raised or processed to make it so flavourless, but it does explain the large amount of pre-flavoured chickens on sale at the God damn supermarket.

Down with Sainsbury's.