Time for that chicken! I love deli-roasted chicken It's so easy to tear apart and eat as is or use in other easy meal recipes, and my kids LOVE the crispy, delicious skin....but, honestly, the chickens at the deli seem to be getting scrawnier and scrawnier while the price is going up, up , up and away....so I've been looking into roasting my own. No, I don't have a rotisserie, but I have discovered you don't have to have one to make delicious roasted chicken.
To start you need a chicken...preferably already dead and plucked...um, yes. These are about 3.5lb-4lb each. Let your chickie sit at normal room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Next, oil or butter your chickens, then apply your seasoning. Don't forget to salt/season the cavity of the chicken...this will help flavour the meat all the way through. You can also loosen the skin on the breast and stuff seasonings right up underneath it, too.
I wanted to see how yummy the olive oil I'm using from Felippo Berio is, so I stuck with really simple seasoning on these chicks...just salt and pepper. If you want, you can add all sorts of herbs/seasonings: rosemary, thyme, sage, herbs de provence, lemon pepper, lemon slices, onions...if it tastes good with chicken you could probably use it.
Another thing: you can truss up your chicken by tying the legs together with kitchen twine. This will help your chick retain it's shape and cook more evenly...but I didn't have any, so I didn't, it's not mandatory. ;)
(Sorry about the lighting in my pictures.)
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You can also place a layer of onion slices on your baking sheet and then put your chickens on top of the onions to have a simple edible rack for them to roast on. This will allow the juices from the birds to drip off and your pan gravy (should you decide to make one) will have additional flavouring from the onion. Again, I didn't do this...it's not required...so if you don't have any onions on hand don't despair.
Once your chickens are oiled and seasoned you just stick them in an oven that's been preheated to 425 degrees fahrenheit. Easy, peasy!
And cook for 60 to 90 minutes. To make sure they are cooked through, check your bird's internal thigh and breast temperature with an instant read thermometer. The thigh should register about 190 degrees while the breast should be about 180 and all juices should run clear when the bird is pierced.
If you don't have a thermometer, you can also just check the juices, and wiggle the leg...if it's really loose you're probably good. Just to make sure, I like to slice a bit into the meat and double check that there isn't any pink left. Pink chicken meat is not a good idea. At all.
Should the outside of your chicken cook faster than the inside and you worry about burning, just use a sheet of aluminum foil to tent your savoury chickies and deflect some of the direct heat.
Lovely, crispy, golden chicken skin...my kids love the stuff and I figure they are getting a good dose of vitamin E when they eat it. Plus, they're still young and skinny...
All that golden juice in the bottom of the baking sheet can be used to make a delicious gravy. And I just realized I never mentioned that you really do NEED to use a rimmed baking sheet to cook your chickens on, otherwise, all that lovely, golden, good-ness will end up on the bottom of your oven in a nasty, not so golden mess.
Definitely a cheaper alternative to picking up an already roasted chicken at the deli. Plus, if you cook a couple birds early in the week you'll have them ready whenever you need one.
And for the record: the EVOO from Felippo Berio worked wonderfully and tasted absolutely delicious! A winner! Thank you Bzzagent for sending me a free sample and letting me in on this fantastic product!
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