Roasting a whole chicken??

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

MadMel

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2011
Messages
750
Reaction score
0
Hi guys, I've been pondering the pros and cons of these methods of roasting a whole bird and would appreciate some insight here. Unfortunately, very few restaurants actually do a whole roast bird now.

So here are the few methods that interest me the most and if you have a better way, please share!

1. Thomas Keller, 450 deg preheated oven, dry, no stuffing, trussed, untouched.
2. Joel Robuchon, 400-410 deg cold oven, buttered, no stuffing, trussed, rotated.
3. Heston's, brined, stuffed w/ lemon n thyme, smothered in butter, untrussed, double roasted (195 till internal temp 140, then rested and returned to max heated oven to brown).

So far I've been following Chef Keller's recipe as it had always worked for me and it was the simplest in execution.
 
i hesitate to respond..all the pros in here humble me.

for a roasted bird, i'm kinda over brining. the bird gets that soggy and soft cooked flesh in the end. the texture just seems "wrong". IMHO.

i now just salt the bird all over, even under the skin in crucial spots..and let it sit wrapped over night. then pepper, butter and roast. i target 175 dark, 160 white. i truss so the wings and legs are not flopping around all exposed. i do go in halfway and flip the bird on the backside.

breaking the bird apart and roasting the parts in a big flat pan..i am liking also.

who is that chef that is known for his fire roasted bird with salsa verde?
 
Trussed, on a spit, brushed with butter.

dsc0003cy.jpg
 
brine 24 hours, hang 24 hours, sous vide with butter and thyme for 3 hours at 66 degrees centigrade, roast in 475 oven for 15 minutes.....ridiculous
 
Quality free-range hormone free bird = no brining necessary, spatchcocked (backbone removed and bird laid out flat) on roasting rack with butter under skin and Himalayan salt & fresh ground pepper (you can also add fresh thyme, garlic and Dijon to your liking), 3/4" thick cut yellow flesh potatoes underneath the rack in the pan to absorb the wonderful fat and juices, 400 degrees for approximately 45 minutes (even cooking and saves a lot of time as opposed to roasting whole).
 
Lemon slices, chopped fresh herbs, some butter, salt and pepper under the skin; olive oil, salt and pepper on the outside; lemon wedges, salt pepper and bundle of fresh herbs in the cavity; roast at 425 deg F. For something different, just S&P, and encase exterior in bacon strips for the first ~40 minutes...
 
I've been doing a combo of a few recipes. Salt (a good amount) a few days in advance and let it sit in the fridge on a rack--though I wish I could hang it. That's from the Zuni Cafe. The skin gets really dry and darker (especially dark on a good quality well-raised chicken, in my experience). Rub a lot of room temp butter on the skin. Roast as in the Thomas Keller recipe, but leave un-trussed as Heston suggests.
I haven't really found any reason to ever stuff it, because it tastes so good as is. The only thing that would improve it for me would be to spit roast it.
 
Beer can or on a chicken stand. Rub the skin with S&P, garlic and herbs and stuff with fresh herbs and whatever fruit that's available. You pick the temp until done. Crispy skin and moist meat every time.
 
I too haven't tried the two cast iron skillet method but bought the cookbook and will try this at soon as possible. A friend tried it and was ecstatic about how fantastic the chicken turned out. The cookbook looks fantastic. Open Range is the title and the author is Jay Bentley.
 
Eleven Madison Park style, mmmm. But Kellers recipe has always been my favorite and got to.
 
It's probably a mistake to ascribe roast chicken methods to chefs and restaurants. It's a freaking roast chicken. My .02.
 
Keller's method is solid as long as you have a 2.5# bird and brining is always a good call. People should brine more of their food. An easy chx brine: 1 liter water, 20g dextrose, 35g kosher salt. 24hrs in brine. let dry for 6 hrs then roast.
 
My favourite quick and easy method at home is similar to the two cast iron pan approach:
Butterfly the chicken, marinade in whatever you like and cook the whole bird in a sandwich press/panini grill. Super moist, super crisp skin and heaps of novelty value.

For a proper roast bird - I brine, dry and roast hard, and I'm not averse to barding the breasts.

At the restaurant: I break it down, cook the breasts sousvide at 65 for 70-80 minutes. Brine the legs, remove the thigh bone and skewer the skin together, poach off in court bouillon and then deep fry. Finish the breasts in a hot pan for skin crispness.
 
I like to dry my brined birds overnight on a rack in the ice box. Then I dry it really well and roast at a high temp. When I don't have time or space for brining I pretty much season, truss and roast.

Now that it's grill season I like to put a trussed bird on the top rack and smoke with apple or cherry.
 
I've gotten a bit tired of brining, too. I've done a couple that were rubbed liberally with kosher salt, and then rested uncovered in the fridge for a day or two before roasting, and those have been the best of all.
 
Keller's method is solid as long as you have a 2.5# bird and brining is always a good call. People should brine more of their food. An easy chx brine: 1 liter water, 20g dextrose, 35g kosher salt. 24hrs in brine. let dry for 6 hrs then roast.

Any reason why it's dextrose (glucose) specifically? Just curious.
 
Best way I have found is to brine for a few hours, then let sit on a rack in fridge until dry. About an hour before cooking take rack out salt liberally and let come to room temp. This will draw out any moisture left in the skin.

Crank oven to highest temp 550 if possible. Take orange juice and add a little water to it. Pour over the bird. Sprinkle with dried thyme, pepper.

Place In oven and drop temp to 400. Rotate every so often unless using convection oven.

Cook until it hits 145 and let rest then before serving return to a 550 oven to crisp skin.

We do ducks same way and were famous for it.
 
Beer can chicken. Maybe not sophisticated enough for this crowd. Yeah, ask Thomas Keller how to roast a chicken? He must cook them at home.
 
For a 3.5# bird I wedge out a lemon, stuff thyme, garlic clove and the wedges in the bird, truss, season and roast it at 425 convection for 22-23 minutes to par cook for service. Just increase the cook time by idk maybe 5-6 min if you wanna take it all the way to done.
 
I might have to try beer can chicken. Never had it, and there are so many good reviews. My biggest problem with roasting a chicken is that even though the thermometer says it's done, I always end up with bloody joints. Not in the meat, but in the joint. Then I don't trust it and have to stick things back in the oven and it dries out.

Our grocery store makes an excellent rotisserie chicken for basically the cost of the raw bird. It's a guilty pleasure--it's always good and there are no dishes to wash.
 
I might have to try beer can chicken. Never had it, and there are so many good reviews. My biggest problem with roasting a chicken is that even though the thermometer says it's done, I always end up with bloody joints. Not in the meat, but in the joint. Then I don't trust it and have to stick things back in the oven and it dries out.

Our grocery store makes an excellent rotisserie chicken for basically the cost of the raw bird. It's a guilty pleasure--it's always good and there are no dishes to wash.

We get complaints of... "The chicken was raw and inedible..!" No you stupid ***** it was just a thick vein in the thigh. It happens from time to time.
 
If you don't know when a chicken is done..................well, the knife isn't the problem.
 
I have to say that I have tried that Thomas Keller bird a few times and it doesn't impress me that much. It works, but it isn't that great IMO. I first saw it on a No Reservations episode and first tried it out a couple of years ago. The video is below. I think it is a good base, but it wasn't all that moist. It might be in the variation of birds I get locally -- I'm not sure.

Frankly, I can break down a bird and roast it in a way that will taste much better and guarantee being more moist, so I don't roast whole chickens much anymore. Maybe my mind will be changed with this thread. With that said, roasting a whole chicken also deprives you of the need to use a knife to break it down. It's always fun to play with toys.

k.

[video=youtube;EWLt6G85zC4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWLt6G85zC4[/video]

Edit: I will be the first to admit that TK would probably make an awesome bird every time, but I am not TK so I rely on techniques that compensate for my inadequacy.
 
If you don't know when a chicken is done..................well, the knife isn't the problem.


I've even heard once, "The chicken wasn't raw...... it just tasted raw."

Why the **** do you know what raw chicken tastes like you ******* **** *****!!
 
Back
Top