Roast Chicken Ideas

I need some advice on something pretty straight forward.

I'm doing a simple roast chicken. I usually do 450 for roughly an hour.

I'm thinking of tossing some vegetables (potatoes and carrots) in with the bird to cook. If I do it, are there any changes I need to make? Temp? Cooking time? Is the juice from the bird going to make the vegetables greasy?

I'm looking to do something that tastes good that doesn't require all that much effort.

Final note -- it looks like it has been several years since I've posted here. When my kids were very young, we had other priorities. I'm looking forward to checking in here often again.

Welcome back - nice to 'see' you again. Here's one idea . . .

Chicken Bread

=R=

Thanks. We tried that last night. We took French bread, sliced it in half, and used that as a base.

I served it as a side.

I liked it more than my wife did. It is going to be one of those things that we are going to mess around with. I can see slicing the bread thin and using it with cheese (or something else) and then serving that separately while the chicken is resting after coming out of the oven.

Do you normally roast the chicken in/on a rack? The veggies will get a good coating of chicken fat, which may or may not be something you consider a good thing. I like it, but others may not. I find that veggies sometimes take less time to cook than the chicken - potatoes can do with a lot of cooking, brussels sprouts need less. They also will cause your chicken to steam somewhat due to their liquid, if you put the chicken right above the veggies. The other option might be to do them in two separate dishes in the oven, if you can fit them.

We put it directly on the pan. The potatoes (fingerling) ended up perfect, although I do wonder how carrots would have worked and whether they would have been overcooked.

The other factor is that the chicken was over five pounds. Usually we get them around 3 1/2 or so, so this one needed some extra time in the oven. That may impact things in the future.

It is such an easy thing to make (and cheap -- a chicken costs about $10 while pizza in Streeterville easily costs $25) so we are going to do it more often.

DML wrote:Is the juice from the bird going to make the vegetables greasy?

If you've ever wandered food markets in Paris (or certain food trucks here) the chicken-fat soaked potatoes are the best part:

spinynorman99 wrote:

DML wrote:Is the juice from the bird going to make the vegetables greasy?

If you've ever wandered food markets in Paris (or certain food trucks here) the chicken-fat soaked potatoes are the best part:

I agree. And I also like to add a squeeze of lemon to the potatoes and vegetables after they come out to cut some of the chicken fat.

I like roasting a whole chicken on a bed of large chunks of carrots and potatoes (not a lot -- just enough to lift the chicken skin up off the bottom of the pan but not so much that some hot air can't get to the skin), whether I end up eating the carrots and potatoes or not (I usually add some herbes de Provence and salt to them because I plan to eat them).

The main reasons that I like putting the chicken on vegetables are that (1) it saves having to scrub off a sticky, greasy roasting rack along with a pan, and (2) I prefer to roast chicken in a glass or ceramic dish and I've learned (the hard way) not to do that with a metal roasting rack and don't know what other type of rack would be appropriate.

Katie wrote:I like roasting a whole chicken on a bed of large chunks of carrots and potatoes (not a lot -- just enough to lift the chicken skin up off the bottom of the pan but not so much that some hot air can't get to the skin), whether I end up eating the carrots and potatoes or not (I usually add some herbes de Provence and salt to them because I plan to eat them).

I always skip the roasting rack and use one or two large onions (quartered) strategically placed to support the meat.

spinynorman99 wrote:

Katie wrote:I like roasting a whole chicken on a bed of large chunks of carrots and potatoes (not a lot -- just enough to lift the chicken skin up off the bottom of the pan but not so much that some hot air can't get to the skin), whether I end up eating the carrots and potatoes or not (I usually add some herbes de Provence and salt to them because I plan to eat them).

I always skip the roasting rack and use one or two large onions (quartered) strategically placed to support the meat.

Test submitting roast chicken recipe reply
Ok don't broadcast this my family secret recipe (Jewish mothers Maxine Gerson Allen- killer roast chicken baffles guest how good and simple it is)

This is old school Jewish roast chicken on bed of rice.

1 whole cut up chicken preferable kosher or brined chicken
3 grated medium carrots ( not a fine grate strands if possible)
3 minced celery stalk
1 large yellow onion chopped I like long strands of onion thinly cut
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
Or 2 cup Aprox
Paprika
Salt/pepper

In roasting pan combine rice, grated carrot, minced celery, onion, add spicy red pepper flakes if you want some kick moderate amount should be kid friendly dish with salt pepper. Mix together shake pan so even.
Then lay chicken on the bone with skin over rice mixture.
Now pour enough chicken broth to cover rice just slightly- tiny bit. Just cover all rice not more than 1/16 of inch extra broth could be or combined with some water as well.
Take fine mesh strainer shake paprika tapping siv sprinkling paprika onto chicken.
Salt and pepper chicken to your liking - kosher is salted but I like it salty.
Cover tight with foil.
Put in 375 bake over 40-45 min.
Remove foil turn oven up to 425 roast until crispy skin about 20 more minutes - edges of rice ideally crisp little like socarat in paella.

All fat from chicken renders into rice fluffy sweet rice with carrots round out for a tremendous Sunday fall winter meal

My method has morphed over the years. I live for Nichols longneck garlic every summer, so I try to include 50+ peeled garlic cloves in the roasting pan along with bunch carrots, split lengthwise, sliced onion, celery, parsnip, new potato wedges, and some basic seasonings. I also add several cups of chicken stock as well as 5-6 oz glace de veau to the roasting pan, which goes into a 375F oven an hour before the chicken gets added to the pan. once these veggies are somewhat caramelized and partially cooked, we add the seasoned chicken and let it go until the leg/thigh is done. I don't mind pink around the thigh/leg bone, so I frequently pull the bird early in order to have juicy breast meat. The bird pictured here is a Roundy's 6 pounder bought at Mariano's. The veggies, pan juices and chicken are delectable. I 've found that I need to add water to the roasting pan occasionally, to replace the dehydrated stock.

Evil Ronnie,
That looks great.
To clarify one point -- so you are talking about roughly two hours of cooking time?

DML,

With a large 3-3.5# fryer, my answer would be yes...about two total hours.

This was a larger 6# roaster, and it might have taken 2.5+ hours.

The braised garlic is just exquisite!

Thanks. We will try it this week.
I will let you know how it turns out.

https://www.bonewerksculinarte.com/
( Usually available at Paulina Meat Market.)

Jimfoodie68 wrote:
This is old school Jewish roast chicken on bed of rice.

1 whole cut up chicken preferable kosher or brined chicken
3 grated medium carrots ( not a fine grate strands if possible)
3 minced celery stalk
1 large yellow onion chopped I like long strands of onion thinly cut
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
Or 2 cup Aprox
Paprika
Salt/pepper

In roasting pan combine rice, grated carrot, minced celery, onion, add spicy red pepper flakes if you want some kick moderate amount should be kid friendly dish with salt pepper. Mix together shake pan so even.
Then lay chicken on the bone with skin over rice mixture.
Now pour enough chicken broth to cover rice just slightly- tiny bit. Just cover all rice not more than 1/16 of inch extra broth could be or combined with some water as well.
Take fine mesh strainer shake paprika tapping siv sprinkling paprika onto chicken.
Salt and pepper chicken to your liking - kosher is salted but I like it salty.
Cover tight with foil.
Put in 375 bake over 40-45 min.
Remove foil turn oven up to 425 roast until crispy skin about 20 more minutes - edges of rice ideally crisp little like socarat in paella.

All fat from chicken renders into rice fluffy sweet rice with carrots round out for a tremendous Sunday fall winter meal

My grandmother made a version of this.

Welcome to LTH Forum.

Evil Ronnie wrote:include 50+ peeled garlic cloves

30 cloves of garlic, Evil wins..... ~

G Wiv wrote:

ChickenGarlic1.jpg

No bread under there?

stevez wrote:No bread under there?

Nope, but quite a lot hiding in there. Fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, cherry tomato, corn, garlic, carrot, shallot, hot pepper, lemon, sage, grapes.......

Turned out pretty well, the bride called out the mushrooms as winner winner of tonight's chicken diner.

For my basic roast chicken, I usually put thick slices of carrots, fennel, sliced onion, celery, parsnip, and some basic seasonings in an oven pan. I'll also add thick (1.5") slices of yam or sweet potato. Then place whole chicken (breast side down) on top of veggies (I'll also use Turkey thighs). Roast all at 375 for ~3 hours. At midway point, I remove chicken and flip sweet potato slices and veggies to make sure that everything gets caramelized, put chicken breast side up (to crisp) back on top of veggies and continue cooking until done.

For an different style of roast chicken, I really like this "Spicy Balinese Roasted Chicken". The kaffir lime leaves, ginger, spices and coconut oil lend a great flavor. http://www.finecooking.com/moveablefeas ... icken.aspx
---

Sweet Willie wrote:Roast all at 375 for ~3 hours.
---

375 for 3 hours? is that correct? How big is that chicken? Doesn't such a long cook time dry out the breast meat?

Evil Ronnie wrote:My method has morphed over the years. I live for Nichols longneck garlic every summer, so I try to include 50+ peeled garlic cloves in the roasting pan along with bunch carrots, split lengthwise, sliced onion, celery, parsnip, new potato wedges, and some basic seasonings. I also add several cups of chicken stock as well as 5-6 oz glace de veau to the roasting pan, which goes into a 375F oven an hour before the chicken gets added to the pan. once these veggies are somewhat caramelized and partially cooked, we add the seasoned chicken and let it go until the leg/thigh is done. I don't mind pink around the thigh/leg bone, so I frequently pull the bird early in order to have juicy breast meat. The bird pictured here is a Roundy's 6 pounder bought at Mariano's. The veggies, pan juices and chicken are delectable. I 've found that I need to add water to the roasting pan occasionally, to replace the dehydrated stock.

Thanks for the idea Evil Ronnie! I have some chicken in the oven now and it smells delicious.

bnowell724 wrote:

Evil Ronnie wrote:My method has morphed over the years. I live for Nichols longneck garlic every summer, so I try to include 50+ peeled garlic cloves in the roasting pan along with bunch carrots, split lengthwise, sliced onion, celery, parsnip, new potato wedges, and some basic seasonings. I also add several cups of chicken stock as well as 5-6 oz glace de veau to the roasting pan, which goes into a 375F oven an hour before the chicken gets added to the pan. once these veggies are somewhat caramelized and partially cooked, we add the seasoned chicken and let it go until the leg/thigh is done. I don't mind pink around the thigh/leg bone, so I frequently pull the bird early in order to have juicy breast meat. The bird pictured here is a Roundy's 6 pounder bought at Mariano's. The veggies, pan juices and chicken are delectable. I 've found that I need to add water to the roasting pan occasionally, to replace the dehydrated stock.

Thanks for the idea Evil Ronnie! I have some chicken in the oven now and it smells delicious.

I can confirm that this is amazing. The super soft veggies soaked in chicken fat are why, along with the crispy chicken skin and moist meat. I used whole garlic, leeks, carrots, parsnips, russet potatoes, and onions, with thyme and rosemary. I had some nice and gelatinous
homemade chicken stock too, which always helps.