Roast Chicken

Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken Recipe
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Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken Recipe

I saw this recipe and the placement of the pan in the oven caught my attention, I like to marinate my birds in buttermilk, so I tried something close to this. Thanks Samin Nosrat for the inspiration to try the cooking placement of pan method was well worth it, Lyn acutally brought it up again when Wholefoods had whole chickens on sale.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole 4-pound chicken, cleaned (organs removed) and patted very dry
  • Kosher salt and pepper
  • 1 quart buttermilk, well shaken- I use the powered just add water kind, always have it handy love how this tenderizes chicken etc.
  • 1 onion and 1 lemon quarters
  • 1 or 2 bay leaf

IMG_20171009_160446

How

  1. 24 hours before you want to eat this chicken, salt inside and out with at least a few tablespoons, if not more. The reason is that much of the salt will get washed off by the buttermilk, so here you’re helping the inside of the chicken get seasoned. I wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in frig overnight.
  2. Place the chicken in a re-sealable plastic bag and fill the bag with the buttermilk.
  3. Seal it, squish the buttermilk all around the chicken, place on a rimmed plate, and refrigerate. Over the next 8-24 hours you can turn the bag so each part of the chicken gets marinated, but that’s not essential.
  4. When you’re ready to roast, preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Note: Next time I’ll place my cast iron or chefs’ pan in there so it gets piping hot. You hear the sizzle when you place the chicken on the pan.

  1. Remove the chicken from the plastic bag and scrape off as much buttermilk as you can without being obsessive. You can lightly rinse it if you want.
  2. Place the bay leaves, onion and lemon in the chicken’s cavity.
  3. Truss the chicken by placing a 12-inch length of butcher’s twine with its center in the small of the chicken’s back. Tie the twine around each wing tightly and then flip the chicken over and use the remaining twine to tie the legs together as tight as you can.
  4. Drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper or alternative salt seasoning and place the chicken in the pan carefully to make sure the legs will fit as below described and the handle is towards you.
  5. Place the pan in the oven with the legs pointing toward the back left corner and close the door. You should hear the chicken sizzling pretty quickly.
  6. IMG_20171009_171932
  7. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes. When the chicken starts to brown, lower the heat to 425 degrees and continue roasting for 30 minutes and then move the pan so the legs are facing the back right corner of the oven.
  8. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is brown all over and the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and the thigh. If it starts to get to brown for your taste you can always make a loose tent with tin foil.
  9. IMG_20171009_171943
  10. When the chicken’s done, remove it to a platter and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving it
  11. IMG_20171009_172113
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Oven Roasted Chicken
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Oven Roasted Chicken

Two Sundays ago Lyn and I were driving around doing our errands when I made the announced that I had a craving for roasted chicken. We pulled into the Stop and Shop, not our usual choice for meats Whole Foods is, but they have Natures Prides which is not that bad, definitely less expensive. Anyway I grabbed a 5 pound chicken and a Cara Cara Orange*, you can use any kind of orange but I never noticed a Cara Cara orange before so what the heck I took a chance.  The orange was actually good when I cut it open and saw the reddish color my first reaction was grapefruit but it was sweet and more like a naval orange. I would buy again.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 pound roasting chicken
  • 1 Cara Cara orange sliced in eights
    • I like to add a fruit in the cavity it adds some moisture and flavor so whether it is lime, lemon, orange or a combination does not matter.
  • 1 small to medium red onion sliced in eights
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic gently crushed just a little
  • A handful of fresh thyme
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • Kosher Salt and pepper
  • Your favorite poultry rub I used mine which I made a long time ago and can’t remember what exactly is in it.
    • Williams-Sonoma makes a good one. We’ve combined kosher salt, black pepper and garlic with traditional herbs and spices, including fennel, thyme and cayenne. Hints of tangy lemon and aromatic mustard add a lively finishing touch.
    • 3-4 thicker carrots slice in 1 inch pieces
    • 3-4 potatoes quartered or smaller depending on size
    • 2-3 red onions quartered
    • Whole garlic cloves if you want

How

Preheat oven to 4500

Remove the giblets etc. and set aside to make a chicken broth future use or toss it. Rinse the chicken inside and out and dry with a paper towel. Optional with handle side of regular dinning knife or fingers loosen the skin from the breast and place a sage leaf on both sides or push some butter mixed with some of the poultry rub.  I usually do something like this but not this time. Lyn says too much fat……

Fold the wings under

Season the cavity with salt and pepper.

Stuff with onion, garlic, orange and thyme.

Sprinkle the rub on the bottom side of chicken, drizzle some olive oil and give it a good massage, do the same to the other side and then grind some pepper all over the top. Tie the legs together to hold the stuffing in and give the chicken a more uniformed shape.

Place in roasting pan on middle rack and roast for 30 minutes. Take out and close the oven door. Drain about half of dripping add the vegetables making sure that the potatoes are cut side down.

Return to oven reduce heat to 3250  roast for 30-40 minutes more until juices run clear and temps is about 160-1650

Remove from oven place on platter cover loosely with tin foil for about 15 minutes before carving.

Now decide how crispy you want the vegetables and whether you want to drain the drippings out of not. So depending on what you decide either turn off the oven now or not…

I wrote this recipe from memory I do not think I forgot anything but I feel every cooking experience should have a little experimentation in it how else can we/you discover new taste treats.

Roasted Chicken with Onions, Carrots and Potatoes                  Roasted Chicken with Onions, Carrots and Potatoes

Cara-Cara-Naval * The Cara cara navel, or red navel orange is an early-to-midseason navel orange believed to have developed as a cross between the Washington navel and the Brazilian Bahia navel. Discovered at the Hacienda de Cara Cara in Valencia, Venezuela in 1976, the parentage is apparently uncertain enough to occasionally warrant the distinction of a mutation, with only the tree on which it was found—the Washington navel—being an accepted progenitor. Cara caras did not enter the U.S consumer produce market until the late 1980s and were carried only by specialty markets for many years thereafter. From Wikipedia