Chicken therapy

Roasting a chicken has got to be one of my favourite kitchen tasks.  The entire process is so wonderfully comforting with a final product that's exquisitely flavourful, succulent, and juicy. Despite this, a lot of people are a little intimidated by the idea of roasting a chicken (or any meat for that matter), yet it's blissfully simple and easy to do.  I find recipes that take a long time to cook are often confused with being complicated or difficult to make.  However, the oven does the majority of the work - all that is required of the cook is to prepare it for going into the oven.  In fact, I would go as far as to say that making a stir fry (with all the chopping and sauteing) is more work than roasting a chicken.

I think most of the intimidation factor of making roast chicken lies in knowing when the chicken is fully cooked.  The stress of serving under-cooked chicken is enough to stop some people from attempting it in the first place.  However, I've got some really helpful and easy tips (below) that simplify the entire process. 

Roast Chicken Recipe:

1 whole raw chicken, patted dry with paper towel

A few sprigs of thyme, rosemary and sage (leaves stripped from the stalks)

3 cloves of garlic

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup of olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan or a large cast iron skillet (any oven proof dish big enough to fit the entire chicken will do).

In a mortar and pestle, grind the herbs, 1 clove or garlic, lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper - until nicely ground up.  Then slowly add the olive oil to the mortar while continuing to grind everything up with the pestle.  Then pour this mixture onto the chicken and massage into the skin, coating the breasts, legs and wings as evenly as possible.  Take the remaining garlic cloves, lemon and any left over herbs and stuff them in the chicken's cavity.  Sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper over the chicken and place in the oven to roast for approximately two hours.

The cooking time for a chicken to roast isn't an exact science in my opinion.  There are so many factors that come into play such as the size of your chicken and the fact that every oven cooks a little differently - it's really hard to state an exact cooking time.  I prefer to rely on checking the chicken for doneness as opposed to cooking it for a specified amount of time.

Probing the chicken with a meat thermometer is a very common method to check if the chicken is cooked through.  However, I feel this ends up adding more confusion and makes the whole process un-necessarily complicated.  In my experience, the thermometer has to be inserted in just the right location or you can end up with an incorrect reading.  Not to mention, I've found in order to get an accurate reading, I have to insert the thermometer into a few different areas of the chicken. Alternatively, I have a few tried and true methods to test a chicken for doneness, none of which require a meat thermometer and all of which are easy.  

-The first thing I do is press down on the breasts to feel if the meat is firm or squishy.  If the meat feels firm, that's an indication the chicken is most likely done.  

-The second thing I do is to move or wiggle the legs a bit; if there's little resistance and they move quite easily the chicken is cooked through.  

-The third thing I do is take two forks (or two meat forks if you have them) and lift the whole chicken up off the roasting pan and let the juices drip from the chicken.  If the juices are very pinkish or red, the chicken is not yet done. However, if the juices are clear or golden hued and not showing any traces of redness, the chicken is done.  

-Lastly, you could also take a knife and pierce the skin between the leg and the thigh and look to see if the juices are still pink or red.  However, lifting the chicken up and letting the juices run out is effectively the same thing without having to break the skin.

Now the chicken is ready to be cut up and happily eaten.  When I carve the chicken, I remove both legs first and then cut off the breasts (either whole or bit by bit - whatever you prefer).  I love having left over's to be enjoyed in a sandwich with dijon mustard, some gruyere cheese, lettuce and tomato - absolute heaven...

Bon appetit!