What to Know when Roasting a Whole Chicken

Roasting a chicken - probably the most satisfying thing a cook can do - is probably something everyone knows. A chicken doesn’t need much help, really. Just a little salt, pepper, butter…a few extras perhaps but essentially you’re just accentuating the flavour of a good chicken, that’s all. So obviously roasting a bird starts with a good chicken.

Chicken has a bad reputation. Back in the early eighties; before most of my staff were born, before the internet and grunge and “balsamic glaze”; beef reigned supreme at the dinner table. I’m not really sure how chicken usurped beef from its Formica throne but it did, and the dynasty of chicken began. If I had to wager a guess I would think it was all those exercise video-cassettes starring leggings and neon jumpsuits and people telling you skinless boneless chicken breast was the healthiest thing to eat since wheatgrass and bulgur. Chicken was to be de-skinned, seasoned minimally, and baked for about a day until ALL the salmonella had been destroyed.  After that shameful procedure the chicken was cut up and tossed with a salad of fancy mesclun leaves, sundried tomatoes and the aforementioned balsamic vinegar (it had just hit the shelves in Ontario, therefore it hadn’t yet made the inevitable transformation into glaze).  This was the perfect dish! It met the basic requirements of the Jane Fonda Workout Army - protein fix, low fat, low salt, gourmet ingredients – hell, after a busy day playing squash (which, incidentally, is a wicked game and I sincerely wish I could play it more often) this chicken dish hit the spot. Variations of it can still be found on the menus of restaurants that pander to the masses, mainly because it sells! So of course it’s going to be on the menu. I’m not really good at selling things that I don’t really really like so this recipe calls for some more, ummm, tasty ingredients? Lotsa salt, pepper, butter and stuff.

I got sidelined there. Back to a good chicken. When you buy a chicken, it should look plump and dry. I sell chickens that have been raised on a vegetable grain feed, without antibiotics or hormones, and are healthy at the time of death. Ideally, you want an air-chilled bird that will have a tight muscle fabric and result in dense meat. That’s the bird for me. This goes for turkey at holidays too, for the record.

Some people like a bird trussed, some don’t. I fall in the former camp, because I feel a tightly packed bird will result in a perfectly and evenly roasted bird. Remember, there are many ways to roast a chicken, just as there are many ways to sail a ship. However, if you want that ship to make it safely into port every time, have the damn thing trussed.

As mentioned, there are many recipes to roast a chicken. Here’s a link to mine, but another really good one is Marcella Hazan’s - it is easy to find online. Now you have the basics, time to show your kids how it’s done!