Juiciest Roasted Chicken

Boy, I am tired. I’m embarrassed to say it isn’t because I spent the weekend tackling the long list of unfinished projects around the house – like the crown moulding missing from ONE wall in the study or the foyer that has been half painted for over THREE YEARS. These would be valid reasons, boys and girls. So what’s the cause for my sorry state?  I visited friends in Atlanta this weekend and it was a stream of late nights and wine (lots of wine – including one unfortunate night of ‘wine in a box’ which considering my repeated trashing of White Zinfandel on this blog’s About Page, this pretty much makes me a hypocrite). Anyway, I’m dragging and paying the price.

Before I move on, one last thing about Atlanta. If you ever find yourself there you should definitely check out the aquarium. It’s amazing. I see why the city is so proud of it. Now, on to food. I bet everybody has a go to recipe for roasted chicken.

It’s the perfect comfort food – inexpensive, easy, universally loved and versatile. And I do mean versatile. Coat it with a dry rub of paprika, cinnamon, cumin and coriander for a bird with a Mediterranean flair. Cook it with a simple herb marinade over a bed of root veggies and you have a one pot wonder. Or how about a Hawaiian inspired version with pineapples, citrus and tarragon (Note to self: you gotta explore that one day). The possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

As beautiful as roasted chicken can be it is often overcooked and dry. It can be a fine line between a chicken that is juicy and tasty and one that is poultry flavored sandpaper. And I’ll admit to having crossed that line before. But that was before I discovered (drum roll)…

…the magic of brining.

Brining is a technique of submerging meat in a liquid with a high concentration of salt. What’s the point in brining? As meat cooks it tightens and squeezes out its moisture. The brining process pulls more water into the bird, which means more moisture is left after it is cooked. The guys at Cooking for Engineers explain it best, “…when water flows out of the meat, salt flows in and begins to break down some of the proteins in the cells. In the broken down state, the molecules become more concentrated and the solute levels rise within the meat. This causes additional water to flow into the meat.”

As a matter of fact, every year for Thanksgiving I cook the same brined turkey. If I forget a basting or if the turkey needs to hang out in the over longer than I had planned…maybe because I’ve realized at the last minute that I forgot to bake the dinner rolls…the turkey will be waiting for me in the oven as juicy as if I had taken it out 40 minutes ago.

Below is a fairly simple recipe. But again, it’s SO succulent and juicy that you really don’t need a ton of bells and whistle to distract from the natural flavor of the bird. As you will note from the photographs, this time I served it with the Micro-Diced Asparagus Salad that I posted a few days ago. 

Enjoy! If you try it, let me know how it goes. Oh yeah, sorry about the bad photgraphs in this post. They really don’t do the chicken justice

JUICIEST ROASTED CHICKEN

This recipe calls for splitting the chicken by removing the backbone. I find that the chicken cooks faster and the exposure of the thighs and legs makes for a more evenly browned bird.

4-5lb whole chicken

1¼ cup kosher salt

¼ cup honey

3 tbl rosemary, chopped

3 tbl fresh oregano, chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 onion, unpeeled and quartered

1 tbl peppercorns, roughly cracked plus 1 tsp of finely cracked peppercorns

3 bay leaves

2 tbl butter, melted

In a stockpot large enough to hold the chicken, dissolve salt and honey in 5 cups of barely warm water. Add rosemary, garlic, onion, peppercorns and bay leaf. Add 3 cups of cold water and set aside.   

Meanwhile, rinse chicken and remove its backbone using a pair of poultry shears. Place chicken in stockpot, adding more cold water if needed to completely cover the chicken. If necessary, cover the chicken with a plate to keep it submerged. Refrigerate for 5 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thoroughly rinse chicken under cold water and pat dry. Place chicken skin side up in a large cast iron skillet or sauté pan. Baste with melted butter and sprinkle with finely cracked pepper.

Cook chicken in bottom rack of oven for about 40 minutes or until the meat between the thigh and leg registers 165 degrees F.

Allow chicken to rest 10 minutes before carving and serving.

Tagged as: Brining, Chicken, Roasting