The Humble Chicken

Chicken is one of my favorite things.  Rewind.  Really well raised chicken is one of my favorite things.  Before you start wondering; I like trees, a lot, but I don't tend to hug them.  However, I am very passionate about buying locally grown, free range, antibiotic free, blah blah, you know the drill, meat and poultry.  There are several reasons for this, of which, I will talk about one of them.  Critters raised right, taste better.  This guy, pictured above, ready for the oven, is one such member of this fraternity.  This was locally raised, running around outside, pecking at bugs, worms, gum, anything sparkly, and generally unstressed about life.  The only thing that was put into this chicken is high quality food and anything else it scratched up outside.  Period.  And I have to tell you, this chicken tastes unlike any chicken I have had in years. 

So, step one is complete.  We have a well raised, delicious bird.  Step two.  Don't @%#&^* it up.  How do we do that?  It really isn't as easy as it would seem.  I have eaten a lot of chicken, lots of it made by me, that have been @%#&^* up.  And I am ashamed of myself for it.  I haven't found many cookbooks that tells you how to not @%#&^* up a chicken, but many innocently lead you, step by step, to a @%#&^* up chicken.  Here is how I do it:

1. Get an excellent quality chicken (we already talked about this, but this list started at one,so I had to talk about it again)
2. Rinse it, and dry it with paper towels (remove the giblets and keep them for soup)
3. Let it sit so that it comes up to room temperature.  this will ensure more even cooking.
4. Remove the wish bone.  This can be done with a sharp knife.  Feel around the neck for the wish bone and make two shallow slices right on the bone.  Then, using your finger, trace around the bone and yank it out.  Cool, huh?
5. Truss the chicken.  The important part is to close up the large opening at the end that goes over the fence last.  This is to keep it from cooking from inside as well as outside, thus keeping the breast from getting over done.  Also, make sure to truss the wings in as well so they don't get overdone either.
6. Then salt the skin of the chicken liberally.  Don't be shy.  It won't be too salty because most of it will run off during roasting.  
7. Place it in a heavy cast iron, aluminum, or other heavy metal pan.  The one this bird is sitting in is a ten inch All-Clad fry pan. It is not a non-stick pan, it is just well seasoned in case you are wondering.
8. Roast at 450 F (four hundred fifty) for about 45-60 minutes for a 3.5 pound bird, until the juices run clear when you poke it in the thickest part of the thigh.  Most people roast chicken at too low of a temperature, which dries them out.
9. This is very important: Remove it from the pan and let it rest on a cutting board for about ten minutes.  The internal temperature will carry over by a few degrees and the juices will redistribute into the meat.  That means when you carve the bird, the juices won't run out all over your cutting board leaving you with dry meat.
10. Don't throw away the carcass.  You can use it for stock or making chicken a la king later on.  If I don't plan to use it right away, I vacuum seal it and freeze it.  Once I have a few in my freezer, I make a kettle of stock.

This is such an easy and delicious preparation that we tend to roast one of these very week or two.  And talk about frugal.  This can feed two people for 3-4 days.  Breasts the first night, legs the second, wings somewhere in day one or two, and soup, stew, or a la king for a couple days somewhere down the road.  I hope this has inspired you to have roast chicken this weekend.  I'm pretty sure we will.