Roasting a chicken is the ultimate culinary experience for me for several reasons:
1) It is a fear I conquered.
2) It makes me feel like I'm someone who's organized and got it together.
3) When done right, the result is delicious.
4) Then I have left overs and I yet again feel like someone who's organized and got it togeter.
4) Once the chicken is gone, I save the carcass and eventually make a stock and the whole house smells like my grandmother's kitchen.
5) I make soup with the stock and then guess what? I really feel like someone who's organized and got it together.
It's ridiculous, I know. But if you've never done it before, it'll do wonders for your self-esteem. This is my own recipe, derived from experience, a Jamie's Kitchen episode and a Tyler's Ultimate episode (on turkey, actually) I saw on the Food Network while I was pregnant and entertaining fantasies of feeding my family homecooked meals every day.
You'll need:
A small chicken* (l.65 kg is good)
4 tablespoons grapeseed oil or soft butter
1 tablespoon of sea salt
2 tablespoons of dried, rubbed sage
1 lemon, washed and cut in half
Gear
1 ceramic roasting pan
A meat thermometer is a great thing; if you don't have one, no worries, I'll tell you how to tell it's done.
*I like organic chicken best, but it's very expensive. Lately we've been using the the President's Choice Free From chicken and really like it. It's not organic but free from a lot of the bad things like hormones and antibiotics. And cheap. Also, there are no "giblets" inside which is good for chicken novices.
If you have the time, let the chicken sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before you cook it.
If there are giblets in your chicken, remember you have to remove them. Just throw them out. We are not Julia Child. Remove string if there is one. Make sure to wash your hands.
1) Pre-heat oven at 350.
2) Mix the oil (or butter) with the sea salt and sage in a small mixing bowl.
3) Place the chicken in a roasting pan (ceramic is best). There should be plenty of room around the chicken, but it's ok if the dish is shallow.
5) Spread the oil or butter / sage mixture with you (clean) hands all-over the chicken, like a massage. Mixture should cover most of the chicken.
6) Place the lemon halves inside the cavity.
7) Cover chicken with tin foil. Place in oven for 1 hour 10 minutes (for 1.60 kg bird). Remove foil and save; roast chicken for another 30 minutes.
8) Check if done by inserting a meat thermometer** into one of the thighs, making sure you don't hit any bone. Temperature should be between 180 and 200 degrees.
9) When done, remove from stove and cover with saved foil for about 15 minutes before serving.
**No meat thermometer: with tongs or a fork shake one of the thighs (like shaking hands). The thigh should come off easily under the skin.
Fancypants: If you want to go the extra mile, make extra oil or butter / sage mixture and insert it underneath the skin as well. You can loosen the skin and make pockets between skin and meat by inserting a knife under the skin at the base of the bird. I believe in Tyler's turkey recipe, they stuck bacon in there; I've never tried that.
Stock? Save the carcass when there's still a little meat left. Put it in a large plastic freezer bag and freeze. When you have 2 carcasses, you can make a small batch of stock. Recipe to come later.
