I have had some interesting meals in my life. But when I think about my best food experiences, a really good roast chicken comes to the top. A traditional birthday treat is La Medusa, a small Sicilian restaurant in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle, with Judy and Steve. This small eatery is consistently outstanding. We go to their market meal sometime in the summer where they create masterpieces with what is fresh in the neighboring farmer’s market. It was there I had the most wonderful restaurant dinner I ever enjoyed: a roasted chicken. Only topped by my friend Melinda’s roasted chicken. She is a chef officially and naturally. In the wonderful, wet Seattle winter (I can say wet is wonderful after my hard time in the Middle East) I was thinking that a roasted chicken is what I really wanted to learn how to make. So, after a call to Melinda, I set out to learn how to roast one that I would be proud to serve. Or to enjoy by myself. Melinda shared with me her approach. I did a little extra research on the internet and took it on. After four (all delicious) birds I feel ready to (over)share what I learned. Here is all the advice (maybe too much?) you need to roast a delicious chicken.
What you need:
- A 5 to 7 pound chicken (my advice: spend the extra money to buy an organic free range bird. Too small and it doesn’t have the juice and fat you need and cooks too fast to really roast in the flavor. Mass produced hormone fed two for the price of one F-ing Farm birds too fatty and injected with juice…well, it just doesn’t feel right to put this much love into). Accounting for the bones and other unplatable parts you get about one serving per pound of raw, whole chicken.
- Two yellow onions
- Two big fat carrots
- Four stalks of celery
- ¼ cup ( ½ cube) butter
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup chopped fresh herbs (I use Italian parsley and fresh thyme and rosemary from the garden)
- Salt (be generous) and fresh ground pepper
- 1/2 lemon, zested and juiced (optional)
What you do:
Preheat oven to 450-degrees.
Put the rack low in the oven (the bird will be pretty high).
Peel the two onions and cut each in half. Lay the four halves in the middle of a deep
sided baking pan. Cut the carrots in half lengthwise and layout across
the top of the onions. Criss cross the
celery stalks on top of the carrots making a vegetable “raft” on which you will
eventually lay the chicken.
(note, this photo illustrates the raft. It is the first chicken I tried. This is where I learned don't bother with a scrawny bird. This was only 2.5 lbs and, though yummy, way too small to make a good roast chicken)
Wash and pat dry the chicken.
Melt the butter.
Mix with chopped herbs, olive oil, a big pinch of salt and
some ground pepper. Add the lemon juice and zest if desired.
With your hand, chicken breast side up, separate the skin
from the breast meat. Generously rub
about half the herbed butter/oil mixture under the skin. This should be a very tactile
experience. No weenies allowed. Clip off the tips of the wings and insert
into the vegetable raft. If the chicken
came with a neck stick that in the raft too.
Ditch any giblets. Who eats those
anyway? With cooking twine, truss the
legs and the “pope’s nose” together tightly then tie the wings tightly to the
body. Rub the rest of the
butter/oil/herbs over the rest of the outside of the chicken. Lay the bird on top of the vegetable raft.
Put the bird in the hot oven and turn the heat down to 350
degrees. Set the timer for 20 minutes
per pound for the bird (set the timer for two hours for a six pound chicken). Soon you will realize you are salivating…the
house starts to smell amazing! Resist
the temptation to peek. When the timer
goes off take the bird’s temperature in two places: the middle of the breast,
and, more importantly, at the fattest part of the thigh. You are aiming for an internal temperature of
160-170 degrees. It continues to heat
before it cools down so don’t worry about the thermometer saying it needs to be
175. Even if the top is a nice brown do
not be tempted to take out sooner. You
may need to go for up to another thirty minutes. Take the chicken out BUT (this is the most
important part) do not cut into the chicken for at least 15 minutes). If you are going to want to make gravy, while
the chicken is cooling remove it from the roaster and put it on a high sided
platter. I’ll explain the gravy part
later. You can leave the chicken at this
point for a good deal of time. It will
stay juicy.
Gravy and Chicken Stock:
While you now have a wonderful roasted chicken, you have the
opportunity to make a wonderful chicken stock and some incredibly delicious
gravy. Here’s what I do: Put a big pot filled half way with cold water
on the back burner. When you’ve put the
chicken on the platter to cool remove the vegetables from the raft and throw
them in the pot with the water (if you’ve got a steamer/straining basket have
it in the pot with the water. It makes
draining the broth later easier). There
will be lots of juices in the roasting pan.
Pour them into a small bowl and stick this in the refrigerator to
separate.
There will be some wonderful brown bits in the bottom of the
roasting pan. Scrape these into a small
saucepan. After the chicken has cooled
for at least 15 minutes move it to a cutting board. There will be lots of good juices on the
platter. Pour these juices into another
small bowl and stick it into the refrigerator.
In another fifteen minutes to a half hour take your two small bowls of
juices from the fridge. The first bowl
will have a thick layer of rendered fat on the top. With a spoon scrape these fats into the
sink. What’s left is a gelatinous layer
of thick brown gravy makings. Put that
into the small saucepan with the brown bits.
The second bowl will mostly be thick gelatinous gravy makings and a thin
layer of fat. If you want, separate that
out but if it’s a small amount don’t worry.
Toss it into the gravy sauce pan.
Turn the burner onto medium.
While it’s heating up, in a small bottle shake together about ¼ cup COLD
milk and a generous tablespoon of white flower.
When the gelatinous juices have melted and are near boil add the
milk/flour mix and a good pinch of salt.
Whisk briskly as it comes to a boil and thickens up. Taste it.
Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. There’s your gravy!
When you carve the bird, throw the unusable back part into
the big pot for the chicken broth. After
people have enjoyed the chicken take any bones from their plates and throw them
in the broth pot too. Simmer that broth
until it is reduced to about a third.
Pour it through a colander and discard the vegetables and bones. Some of the herbs will stay behind. That’s all good. Return to the pot and simmer until about an
hour before you have to give up and go to bed.
Just before you retire move the reduced broth to a sealable container
and throw it in the fridge or into the freezer.
You have gold there. You can be
sated just by the aromas from reheating that broth. It’s all good!
Sides: (Mashed
Potatoes and Roasted Green Beans with Garlic)
You don’t have to do anything but the chicken to be
perfectly at peace. But as long as you
are messing up the kitchen, and maybe serving a few friends, and have that
wonderful brown gravy, simple sides of mashed potatoes and roasted green beans
are perfect sides. For the potatoes I
use some large red ones. Cut them into
fourths. Cover with cold water plus a
generous pinch of Kosher salt. Boil
until soft when pierced with a fork.
Drain. Put through a potato ricer
(I don’t like to use the mixer as they turn too starchy). Some of the red skins will get through. That’s all good too. Heat a little butter and milk and mix
in. Then dip into that hot broth on the
back burner and add some to the potatoes through a strainer until they are the
texture you like. Taste and add more
salt if needed.
For the beans, pinch off the stem ends and wash. Shake off the water. Toss with a little olive oil and a little
Kosher salt. Chop finely several cloves of
garlic and toss in too. Lay them out in
a single layer on a baking sheet. Throw
them into the 375 oven while the chicken is cooling. Cook for about eight minutes. That’s it.
Easy peasy.
What you drink:
If you are at a loss for what wine to serve with this chicken
I will recommend a nice chilled rose' or a Pinot Noir at room temp. Trader Joe’s has lots of good, well priced
options. This is a rustic meal. No expensive labels needed. I like one with a good write up posted on the
shelf and a fun label. I’m just that
way.
