Sunday Night Roast Chicken

One of the easiest meals to make on a Sunday night that can help you make it through the start of the new work week is a roast chicken. Making simple food ahead of time makes it easy for brain dead individuals to roll out of bed Monday morning and throw together a sandwich, a quick salad, a breakfast wrap or something else equally easy.

We like to get a good size chicken (the one here is a seven pounder) that will make enough shredded chicken to last a few meals (like the chicken enchiladas we made last time). 

First step: Wash the hell out of your dirty chicken, but be intelligent about it

My mother always told me to treat raw chicken like it's diseased, because it is. Just about all chicken in America is contaminated with Campylobacter and Salmonella. Rinsing the raw meat helps to rid you of some of the buggies. However, most Americans are idiots and don't know about cross-contamination and cleanliness. Being a researcher in a lab, I have been thoroughly disciplined to create a sterile environment. Everything gets wiped down with alcohol, everything is treated as if it has been contaminated and everything is a big deal. 

Toxic poulty: Rinsed and patted dry

 Because of this, before I wash my chicken in the sink, I move everything away from the sink. Any splashing that comes off the chicken stays within the sink. After I wash the chicken and dry it off in the roasting pan (having Ian hand me paper towels so I don't touch anything but the chicken), I then lysol the crap out of the sink and let the spray stand there for a few minutes before washing it down with hot soapy water. This takes more steps than the average American wants to take, but it is helpful for those that are worried about bacteria, like the germaphobe in me is.

Yes, people throw in chicken straight from the packaging into the oven and don't die. Yes, many places online will tell you washing raw chicken is unnecessary. I grew up with washing raw chicken and I have never died, nor have I contaminated my kitchen. Be intelligent in your kitchen, and you will survive just fine.

Second step: Season the chicken

The potential ways to dress a chicken before roasting are limitless. You can stuff them with fresh herbs, pat them with dry herbs, slide lemons inside the skin, dust them in flour, soak them in a brine solution...the list goes on and on. You simply cannot go wrong with your choice. 

For making a roast chicken that I plan to pull apart and make shredded chicken, I like to keep the ingredients simple so that the final product can be added to any other recipe. Good quality olive oil, garlic cloves, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper go a lot farther than you would think. I like to thoroughly coat the chicken in olive oil (oil on dry skin makes for a crispy skin which is delicious) by having Ian pour the oil onto my hands while I rub it into the chicken. Then I manipulate the chicken so he can grind black pepper over all surfaces and then add the sea salt. Garlic cloves can be pushed under the skin and thrown into the cavity for extra flavor.

**If you are preparing the chicken alone, mix oil, salt and pepper into a prep bowl before hand and then only touch that bowl. Once you are done you can pop that bowl into the sink when you can have a second bowl of hot soapy water prepared to begin disinfecting yourself and your gear**

Tonight I was feeling saucy, so I sliced up half a lemon and some yellow onion and pushed the pieces between the meat and skin around the chicken as well as into the cavity. I only did a half a lemon, so this gives a hint of flavor more than anything else. If you use a lot more lemon, you can keep the chicken very moist and punch it full of the vibrant lemon flavor, but that's a different night. Another good recipe is coating the chicken with softened butter...it's pure heaven, but one hell of a calorie punch to the gut.

Seasoned chicken with some lemon and onion sections

Step three: Roast the birdie 

Once the chicken was fully prepped, Ian popped it into the oven that we set at 475 degrees. This hot temperature helps to fry the chicken a bit with all that good olive oil on it. The hot sizzle coming from the oven after only a couple minutes makes you realize you haven't actually had dinner yet...and you're hungry.

We "fry" the chicken at 475 degrees for approximately 25 minutes to get it nice and hot with (anywhere from 450-475 will do the trick), and then bring the temperature down to 375 for the rest of the time. Depending on the size of your chicken, the cooking time will change...duh. 

Step four (A): Stop looking at the birdie

So in case you weren't aware...every time you open the oven door to look at your food...the  heat escapes and causes cooking times to take longer than they should. So keep that damn door shut.

Step four (B): Determine if the chicken is done

Pull that drumstick...and then yell at Ian for eating that drumstick

The chicken can be determined as fully cooked if you can stab it with your biggest knife (watching Dexter right now- I normally use a small knife here) and the juices run clear. My mom also taught me to pull on the drumstick. If the meat pulls off the drumstick with little pressure, then the chicken is

ready to go.

Step five: Cool down the chicken...fast

Once the chicken comes out of the oven, it has to cool down fast so that the meat doesn't stay at a dangerous temperature for too long and let bacteria build up (gross). We put the chicken outside when it is cold at night, which helps cool down the chicken fast. Another way to do it is to slice the entire roast in half to release the heat inside.

Step six: Do with it what you will

Because we started this chicken late, we're simply going to cool the chicken tonight, fridge it, and then shred it tomorrow. If this was an actual dinner, we'd add some veggies, rice and other items to make it a more complete dinner. For our case, after shredding the chicken we can freeze half of it and then keep the rest in the fridge for the next couple days to make our meals. I like to save the carcass to make chicken stock. I have bones from the last roast chicken I did, so a chicken stock blog will be coming up soon!

Step seven: Roast Fingerling Potatoes (Ian's input)

Do yourself a favor and make sure you have some nice fingerling potatoes on hand. When chicken is done, remove it from pan (cool correctly, please see Liz's dissertation on subject....there Will be a quiz)

Roll potatoes in the chicken grease til fully coated, roast, and........ 

ENJOY!! you can thank me in the morning. 

Rub the potatoes in the caramelized bits of chicken... and then swoon.

Verdict

Roasted chicken is always a good meal... roasted potatoes in the chicken grease left over? Friggin' phenomenal. We also found a few leftover garlic cloves stuck in the charcoal chicken bits at the end...and they were fantastic. Next time we do a roast chicken, we're definitely going to through a couple extra garlic cloves into the pan along with the fingerlings, as roasted garlic is just a amazing as roasted fingerling potatoes in chicken grease.