I’m a huge fan of baking. Not so much cakes and cookies, but baking everything else. When you put something in the oven for a while, it just comes out better. Whatever you’re cooking has crispy bits, and in the case of chicken, crackly cooked skin. Bottom line, its good, and not too labor intensive. So, in this post we discuss roast chicken.
Cooking has evolved over the millennia. We have figured out hundreds of ways to process food for eating, and twice as many ways to put it on the table. But, there’s something about going back to our cooking roots that just feels good. Roasting is it. Thousands years ago, someone figured out that putting meat over the fire made it better, and we’ve been doing it ever since. In those days it was cooking over an open fire, and cooking a chicken whole over a barbecue is great, but, we’re cooking ours in the oven.
The roasting
Ovens have been around a while, some have been found in central Europe from 30,000 years ago. Certainly didn’t look like the shiny appliance in your kitchen today. I use the term “oven” loosely. Back then, it was a fire pit, where a fire would be made at the bottom of a hole in the ground, the meat would be wrapped in leaves, laid on top, and the whole thing would be covered with earth for a while to cook. Mammoth was pretty popular then. That style cooking can still be found in quite a few places around the world.
Over time, the oven evolved into something closer to what we know today. But for a long time was a ceramic box that was heated over a fire. Similar to a Dutch Oven, which is usually cast iron, I wrote a whole post about that. They are much more sophisticated now, infinitely adjustable heat, convection, using hot air to do the cooking. And cooking in the oven is healthier. You don’t have to add any fat to cook the meat, unlike frying. Also, when baking a chicken, save the carcass, it’s good to make chicken broth.
The chicken
Getting back to our roast chicken. Apart from the fact that it tastes good, it’s also cheap and easy to prepare, and, has so many uses. My local grocery has them on sale pretty frequently, I’ll buy two, cook one, and freeze one. And don’t think that when you roast a chicken, it has to be served as roast chicken that day. The breast meat can be used in a salad, the meat can be used in a pot pie, the legs are a great snack (they even have their own handle), and the carcass for broth, as I had said. So, this little bird is very versatile, and a good source of vitamins and minerals, as well as protein. Also, chicken, like turkey, contains tryptophan, the chemical that makes you feel relaxed after Thanksgiving dinner. So roast chicken is a comfort food too.
The instructions
When baking, I’m not a fan of masking the flavor of what you’re cooking. So, we’re going to keep the spices to a minimum, however we want crispy crackly skin. Start with a 3-4 pound bird, remove from the package and pat dry. Back in the day we used to rinse the chicken, however that’s not a good practice. Raw meat can make you sick, read this post of mine, its very informative. Check inside the bird, they usually put the neck etc. in a bag in the cavity. They can be cooked with the bird, or separately. If you’re not going to cook them, save them to make the broth with.
I’m a fan of minimizing pot usage, one pot dinners are really easier. So, with that in mind, we’ll put everything together to cook, meat and veggies. Start with a deep baking dish, lined with parchment paper. In it put; Two celery sticks, two large carrots and three large potatoes, all cut into chunks. Now for the bird. Take three or four cloves of garlic cut in two, stuff them under the skin on the breast, also, cut slits in the skin on the legs and thighs and put some garlic under there too. Rub a little olive oil on the skin, this will help it to crisp up, and sprinkle generously with coarse ground salt and pepper. Tie the leg ends together with some kitchen string.
Put the chicken in a preheated 450 degree oven for 15 mins, then drop the heat to 350 degrees and allow approximately 20 mins per pound. I would say for a four pound bird, check the temp at about an hour and a quarter. I’m a big fan of temperature checking my food, for a couple of reasons. I’m a little scientific by nature, but also, I’ve found that the meat is the juiciest and most flavorful at the correct temp. For chicken, that’s 165 degrees in the thickest part of the meat, the breast close to the wings.
When it’s done, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving to serve. The vegetables that cooked with the chicken can be cut up and put in a dish on the table for anyone to take. The juice can be poured into a container and the fat scooped off, put that on the table to use as gravy. And that’s it, roast chicken dinner. Thank you and enjoy.