ChefJune
Master Chef
Blondie, remember that a crockpot chicken will not be roasted, but will be stewed. Perfectly delicious, to be sure, but NOT roasted.
This is one recipe that has eluded me thus far. I honestly can't roast a perfect chicken. There is always one element that seems to be traded off for the others. When 3.5lb chickens go on sale at my local market, I usually buy 3 or 4 to experiement with (only about $2/ea on sale).
I've tried about 20 different recipes, then I tried approaching it scientifically, and I can't seem to get it 100%. I'm still working on ideas though, and always looking for the eureeka tip.
I typically trade off the crispy skin on the breast for perfect doneness in my oven and crisp skin on the back of the legs, or I break down the bird and roast the pieces separately.
Here is what I aim for in a final rested bird...
1. Legs/Thighs at 180ºF with connective tissues melted down.
2. Breast at 165ºF from neck to cavity.
3. Crisp skin 360º around the bird.
4. Drippings that can be used for a pan sauce.
And here are some of the ways I go about achieving these...
I rest the bird on the counter for an hour or so to warm slightly. The thighs have a much smaller surface to mass ratio than the breasts, so they cook much more slowly. Add in the fact that the theighs need to be cooked to a higher internal temperature, and you have a problem. I increase the surface area of the legs/thighs by not trussing them. The body cavity needs to be cleaned real well to remove residual viscera to minimize their effect on the pan sauce. Reaching inside the cavity and placing one finger on each side of the spine, drag them forward until you reach the pockets near the cavity opening and scoop out any remaining nastys, then wash the bird well. Dry the bird thoroughly. I also trim the two large fat flaps at the cavity entrance (not the pope's nose).
I like my roasted foods simple whether it's meat or veggies. I might make a savory or zippy sauce for them after, but I love the purity of flavor genrated by dry cooking methods such as roasting. So for the bird it's butter and salt... thats it. I mix some kosher salt into four tablespoons of butter and have at it. One tablespoon under the skin of each breast, one teaspoon under the skin of each thigh, and the remaining butter thoroughly rubbed over the entire bird.
I set a cooling rack on top of a ten inch frypan, and use this as the roasting vessel. This holds the chicken a good 1.5" over the pan surface keeping it out of the fat and juices. I usually add one medium slivered onion to the pan for flavoring the final jus. The onion roasts at the same time, and also infuses the pan drippings. I also add the neck/heart/gizzard as well as the pieces of trimmed fat, but toss the liver.
This helps some, but doesn't do the job by itself. I try to increase the amount of heat being applied to the thighs versus the breasts by roasting the bird upside down and spreading the legs out (they fit in the gaps of the rack perfect). The radiant heat from the oven walls hits the back, legs, and thighs, but the roasting pan protects the breast. This increases the speed by which the legs and thighs are cooked so that everything reaches the proper temp at the same time. Unfortunately this prevents the skin on the breast from browning (the back skin browns nicely).
High temperatures penetrate and overcook the exterior layers of the bird before fully cooking the meat at the bone. Bones are excellent insulators due to their hollow honey-comb structure, so the meat at the bone takes a long time to cook (I used to think they conducted heat, but after reading an article about this very subject, I had one of those ah-ha moments). Not only does it take long to cook, but it takes a while for the connective tissues to melt away and give that lip-smacking goodness within a chicken theigh. I roast at 300ºF which gently raises the temperature throughout the entire bird. The heat penetration is slow and even which insures properly cooked meat throughout, not just at the bone with overcooked outer layers. It also permits enough time for the connective tissues in the thighs to melt beautifully (even those along the bones). Because everything is basically at the same temp throughout each section, you don't get much carry-over cooking either. In my 60ºF apartment I see 1 or 2ºF at most. So I pull the roast when the meat at the thigh reaches a degree or two under 180ºF. I rest it for 20min before carving.
For the pan sauce I set the pan over med-high heat and boil off the moisture until a fond forms and the fat is clarified. I pour off the fat, deglaze the pan with some white wine, add two cups of brown chicken stock, toss in a crushed clove of garlic along with a sprig of thyme, and reduce the liquid by 50-65%. Then I pick out the giblets/thyme/garlic/fat flaps, hit it with freshly ground black pepper, and serve it. Brining makes this pan sauce incredibly salty, and I'm not a fan of brining anyways, so... I don't brine.
So I'm a chicken roasting failure! But to be honest, I've never had a perfect one at anyone elses house or deli either. There always seems to be a compromise made somewhere. I've tried high heat all the way, high heat to brown and then low heat to finish, low heat to cook and high heat to finish, low heat to cook and then broiling breats side up, and even just a moderate temp of 350, and 375 (also tried constant high temps of 400, 450, 500, and 550).
I haven't experiemented with any rotisserie methods, but I'd like to try sometime if I could aquire the needed gear. Rotisserie birds roasted at relatively low temps with one hot radiant heat source periodically blasting a small portion of the bird at a given time (browning the skin) seem to produce the best roast chickens I've had. They usually have slightly overcooked breastmeat unfortunately, or are artifically brined with (of course) no pan sauce.
I'd love some help with this one if any of you have the magic key!
Nicholas Mosher said:...thegrova - I have an immense amount of respect for TK's dishes & techniques (I own all his books and have read them cover to cover, cooking a good portion of 'em too). I would love to see the exact oven, pans, and other varibales that come together to produce a perfectly roasted bird using his method. I tried it a couple times with overcooked breast meat and undercooked thighs being the result...
Nicholas Mosher said:Godweed - I've tried roasting breast side up at a wide range of oven temps from 250-550ºF and always get either overcooked breastmeat and perfect thighs, or perfect breastmeat and undercooked thighs. Again, I like my breastmeat around 165ºF, and my thighs around 180ºF (but more importantly, the connective tissues in the thighs needs to break down into gelatin which also takes time, not just an instantaneous temp).
I find 300ºF to be the best roasting temp, as it permits a gentle heating of the entire bird without overcooking the exterior portions of meat. 300ºF is also sufficently high to dissolve the collagen in the skin, and then cook away the moisture leaving a crisp skin (rather than leathery or rubbery).
(Please see me lengthy post on the previous page detailing my adventures...)
Going to try a couple different techniques today.
Well... I like it "just done" too. As far as melting the collagen, it's what creates that lip-smacking texture and tenderness of thighs. Without doing so, you end up with a gristly/chewy thigh. If I roast at a relatively low temp (such as 300-325ºF) I find that the thighs reach this stage by the time their internal temperature hits 175-180ºF (I usually pull it around 178ºF, as I only see about 2ºF of heat rise with a low roasting temp and my 60ºF apartment). The trick is reaching this stage without cooking the breast past 163-165ºF. I've found that by roasting breast side down (and with teh legs spread out) I can increase the amount of energy hitting the legs/thighs while simultaneously protecting the breastmeat from the radiating energy of the oven walls (effectively retarding the speed at which they cook). Unfortunately (as you noted above), this yields nice n' rubbery skin over the breast (although the skin across the back and sides is beautifully crisp).I like the dark meat just done. I don't require the collagen or connective tissues to be melted down.
Nicholas Mosher said:... One thing I haven't tried is roasting it upright with a foil triangle, and then removing it later... Gonna' give this a shot right now I think!