Your FAVORITE roast chicken recipe

[SobaAddict70]

Notice I managed to spell "FAVORITE" correctly this time.

I really dig the 40 cloves of garlic version. Ya dig?

Take 1 chicken, preferably the kind with a pop-up timer. (Me lazy. No meat thermometer in the house.) Smear with your favorite fat. I use EVOO and sometimes slip in nuggets of unsalted butter or duck fat in between the skin and meat. Stuff the cavity with 40 cloves or more of unpeeled garlic cloves, maybe add a quarter or two of preserved lemons if I'm feeling kinky.

Roast in a 350 degree oven for an hour or so or until the timer thingie pops up.

Serve this with roasted potatoes or rice pilaf, and a salad or veggie of your choice.

So, what are your roast chicken recipes?

Soba

[mongo_jones]

i am partial to ma hazan's still life with chicken and 2 lemons

[JFLinLA]

Brining the bird first is not required but always helpful.

In a mortar and pestle make a paste with 1 T kosher salt, 1 clove of garlic and enough evoo to hold it all together. Rub paste all over outside of bird and inside cavity. Fill cavity with quartered lemons. Roast on a rack with a little water in the bottom of the pan.

Once it's done and the bird is cooling, pour off the fat and deglaze the pan on top of the stove with stock, water or something else. Reduce and pour over your cut-up bird.

[gus_tatory]

Notice I managed to spell "FAVORITE" correctly this time. 

yeah, you managed to spell "favourite" correctly--for an American!

my fave roast chicken:

in a bowl put juice of 1-2 lemons (save lemon shells for inside chicken), rock salt, cracked black pepper, generous glob butter, some fresh rosemary, few cloves smashed garlic.

and, if you're feeling "kinky": anchovies, black olives, and/or capers. i just realized this is kinda like "chicken puttanesca"!?

roast 350 for 1.25 hours.

edit to add: spelling comment entirely not meant to cause offense, simply to point out varying spellings in different parts of the world.

Edited February 11, 2004 by gus_tatory (log)

[slkinsey]

I like to roast my chicken spatchcocked after marination in lemon juice, garlic and crushed red pepper.

[NeroW]

Beer Can Chicken.

[Mayhaw Man]

I like to roast my chicken spatchcocked after marination in lemon juice, garlic and crushed red pepper.

I'm with Sam, except that I probably put more pepper on it ( I love that crunchy, spicy skin).

Sometimes instead of spatchcocking I will use one of those little wire stands and bake it standing up. It makes for more square inches of crunchy skin goodness.

[Dave the Cook]

Sam and Brooks, since you like it spicy, try this:

Brine your chicken, of course, adding the juice of one lime or lemon and a teaspoon of red pepper sauce to the salt (assuming two quarts of brine). While it's soaking, puree a can of Chipotles in Adobo, sauce and all. Add the juice of one lime or one lemon and let it meld until the chicken is ready.

Smear the sauce all over the skin.

Roast per your favorite method. I grill it over indirect coals -- you can spatchcock it, but you want it to take a while to cook, so go easy on the heat.

[bloviatrix]

Asking to choose my favorite roast chicken recipe is like asking a parent to choose their favorite child.

Edited February 11, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[Mabelline]

I am 50/50 on the garlic and the lemon. But then I adore green thai curry smeared on a standing roast. I guess I'm really like bloviatrix-a different child for a different mood. But to anyone who has not tried the garlic chicken please do-THAT is alchemy!!

Edit to say that sounds better than alkemy? Hukd on faniks werkd fer me!

Edited February 11, 2004 by Mabelline (log)

[Eric_Malson]

I like to roast my chicken spatchcocked after marination in lemon juice, garlic and crushed red pepper.

Spatchcocked.....I love that word!

My favorite comes from Elizabeth David. Chop some fresh tarragon leaves and knead them, along with a clove of garlic, some salt and pepper, into a couple of tablespoons of butter and put into the cavity. Coat the bird with olive and oil and roast on it's side (in a rack), turning it over at half-time.

When it's done, heat some brandy (a quarter-to-half cup should do), light it and pour it over the chicken. Return it to the oven for another 5 minutes. Add a couple of tbsps. of heavy cream to the sauce and it's ready.

[Nancy Berry]

I have two favorites:

1. Marcella Hazan's lemon chicken-- I usually add some sliced onions and chopped garlic to the stuffing, but I've made it just as she suggests and that version was excellent, too.

2. Joyce Goldstein's Pollo Arrosto all'Arancia, Limone, e Zenzero, Chicken Roasted with Orange, Lemon and Ginger from her book, Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen.

[mklynch]

I brine the bird in a 50-50 salt sugar brine for 1 hour. During that time I grind up in my food processor about 5 jalepeno peppers without seeds, several cloves of garlic, black pepper, zest of a lemon and half it's juice, a couple tbsps butter, sometimes some bacon, could add lime, cilantro, depending on what's handy.

Then schmere this goop all over under the skin and some more slivers of jalepeno just to be sure. Squeeze more lemon juice on the bird and stuff the cavity with lemon, herbs and more garlic. I like to rotisserie on my Weber, but roasting in the oven for about an hour and a half works fine too on a lazy day.

Be sure to taste the jalepenos first as their heat can vary so much.

Oh, yeah, I always wear vinyl gloves while doing this!

Edited February 12, 2004 by mklynch (log)

[fifi]

I have many favorites, most of which involve lemon and garlic. However, my Coconut Glazed Chicken is by far the most often requested. Funny that this isn't a "crispy skin" recipe and all of my crispy-skin-nut friends still request this one. Go figure.

edit: to fix Recipe link

Edited April 29, 2005 by fifi (log)

[paul mitchell]

Soba your missing one important thing to make 40 cloves of garlic chicken off the charts. Simply serve it with a warm artisan sourdough and a wack of the best chevre you can find. Put the chicken on a carving board on the table. Put a piece of carved chicken on the bread, then the goat cheese (will melt lovely) and then root out a couple pieces of the nutty roasted garlic. With a nice Pinot and your laughing.

Edited February 12, 2004 by paul mitchell (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Soba your missing one important thing to make 40 cloves of garlic chicken off the charts. Simply serve it with a warm artisan sourdough and a wack of the best chevre you can find. Put the chicken on a carving board on the table. Put a piece of carved chicken on the bread, then the goat cheese (will melt lovely) and then root out a couple pieces of the nutty roasted garlic. With a nice Pinot and your laughing.

Ah, and there's the rub:

1. I LOATHE most meat and cheese combinations. (Cheeseburgers are out although lasagna (and Italian food in general) is in. I'm weird like that.)

2. I don't drink, so a pinot noir or any other kind of pinot is definitely out.

Soba

[woodburner]

I'm partial to the 6 hour cook.

woodburner

[Larry]

My new current favourite is from Jamie Oliver where you stuff it with couscous and dried fruits, rub it with moorish spices and then bake it on a sweet potato "stovie". Then just squeeze fresh lemon over the top and it's fantastic.

[babka]

zuni chicken--salt and mostly uncovered in the fridge for 36 hours.

the recipe is brilliantly boring, and the chicken is brilliantly phantasmagoric.

query though--I'm still fairly new to this meat-cooking thing, mostly out of concerns over wretched industrial farming, and have only tried to cook Bell & Evans chickens. Is there an actual taste difference between B&E, Purdue, and the assorted other supermarket chickens? Can you salt/brine an injected chicken?

[Pan]

There's definitely a difference in taste between all chickens whose feed includes cod liver oil (and that includes Bell & Evans) and organic free-range chickens. But Bell & Evans is better than Purdue, et al.

[Mabelline]

Soba: I too am 98% alcohol-free. What do you drink with a chicken? I like ice water with lemon or a good bewed pot of tea, but I find fruit juices almost cloyingly sweet unless cut with tonic or soda water. Can't abide soda pop-it tastes like acid with bubbles to me. With steaks I can handle iced tea,or tomato juice, but I get bored.

Woodburner: That is absolutely gorgeous!

Larry: By sweet potato Stovie do you mean you like halve sweets then place the chicken on them?

[SobaAddict70]

Soba: I too am 98% alcohol-free. What do you drink with a chicken? I like ice water with lemon or a good bewed pot of tea, but I find fruit juices almost cloyingly sweet unless cut with tonic or soda water. Can't abide soda pop-it tastes like acid with bubbles to me. With steaks I can handle iced tea,or tomato juice, but I get bored.

Woodburner: That is absolutely gorgeous!

Larry: By sweet potato Stovie do you mean you like halve sweets then place the chicken on them?

I prefer water in almost any form: bottled, sparkling, flat, tap water.

Most of the time, I drink either Poland Spring, Evian, Pellegrino, Lurisia or Deer Park (in order of preference).

Sometimes its tonic water with a squeeze of lemon or lime.

Sometimes its iced tea, either iced green tea or iced blueberry tea, or the usual plain unsweetened kind.

Sometimes, it's lassi.

Rarely is it fizzy pop, and then only either Sprite or ginger ale.

Woodburner -- definitely a thing of beauty.

Soba

[Mabelline]

Yes, almost drink for drink, I agree. Even Sprite gets to me anymore, though I love real gingerale. It's almost sinful, it's so good. Is lassi that yoghurt drink? If so, I had a recipe from Raichlen's Barbeque Bible(which was a borrowed book that never has come back home ) and I loved it.

Edited February 13, 2004 by Mabelline (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Not to throw the thread off track, but lassi is really simple to make: just yogurt, milk, ice cubes and sugar. Add your choice of flavorings or leave it alone. Use salt in place of sugar (less though, b/c you want it lightly salted). Mango puree, rose water, pureed banana, or just a pinch of cumin -- it's all good. Toss in a blender, pulse (crush the ice as you're pulsing), pour and drink.

Soba

[Mabelline]

Thanks so much...I knew it was simple, but then so am I: I was going to check out the BBQ Bible tomorrow at the library to do it again. I've had a hankering for it.

Back on topic: babka, for the zuni chicken, do you roast it as is after the setting up, or do you rinse it off?