What's your secret for great roast chicken?

Answer 1

my secret is to marinate the chicken in a large plastic ziplob bag with beer ( I use Samuel Adams or a lager), barbeque sauce, mustard, honey and salt and pepper. Seal and coat int he bag for atleast 3 hours and you can sear the outside of the chicken in a big pan first and then bake or broil it in the oven. Good luck!

Answer 2

Make classic roast chicken even better by starting with seasonings under the skin and finishing with a delicious sauce from the pan juices

Also I found this article with some great tips :-)

Here are the steps for roasting a delicious chicken:

Take the chicken out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. It will probably need to sit out for 45 minutes to an hour. A room-temperature chicken will roast more evenly than one that's cold.


Season, season, season! Any combination of herbs, fruits or vegetables will help you add flavor to the chicken. To add the most flavor to the chicken, carefully pull the skin away from the body and slip sliced lemons and thyme sprigs under the skin. Also place salt, pepper, lemons and thyme into the cavity of the chicken.


Next, rub butter or oil all over the outside of the chicken. This serves two purposes. It allows the chicken to brown and look attractive. It also soaks into the chicken, essentially basting it and keeping it juicy.


The final step before slipping the bird into the oven is to tie the legs together with some kitchen string. This helps the chicken keep its shape (otherwise the legs would splay apart as the bird cooked) and thus roast evenly.

Place the chicken on a "V rack" in the roasting pan. The shape of this rack further helps the chicken maintain its shape and allows it to brown evenly because air and heat can circulate around the entire bird.


Roast chicken recipes typically call for the bird to stay in the oven for around an hour-and-a-half. How to know if your chicken is done? An instant-read thermometer should register about 170 F. Ritchie's trick: if the chicken's leg wiggles freely in its socket and juices are running clear, it's done.


Once you've pulled the chicken from the oven, carefully tip the bird so that juices from the cavity run down into the pan. Then, flip it over on its rack so the breast is facing down, closest to the pan bottom. This allows all of the juices inside the chicken to run down into the breast, making it even juicier. The chicken should sit for 10 to 20 minutes before carving so the meat can absorb all of these juices.

Now you've prepared the perfect roast chicken, but you're not done yet. You still have to get the meat off the bones. This is intimidating for many people, but carving the bird is not terribly difficult.

First slice off the legs, cutting between the thigh and the drumstick. Look for a small "V." This is where you should position your knife to cut.


Then carve off one breast at a time. You don't have to cut the chicken breast into nice slices, like you would with a turkey. Ritchie says that the breast is too small and the meat simply won't hold together for that. So you don't have to feel like a failure if your breast meat looks messy when you're done.

The following recipe calls for adding vegetables and stock to the pan after 30 minutes of cooking. This step does add additional flavor and moisture to the chicken and gives you all of the ingredients you'll need to make a sauce or gravy if you choose.

If you need to speed the preparation time, instead of slicing lemons, garlic or other items and slipping these under the skin, you can rub the bird and the cavity with a flavored oil. Ritchie suggests making a paste of the flavored oil, salt, pepper and fresh thyme, but you don't have to do this.

Answer 3

The secret it to buy a good quality proper, free range chicken, not a force fed barn or battery hen.

Look at buying a Real Meat Company chicken, or find a local farm/butcher that can guarantee it is a true free range chicken or buy and organic chicken. The taste difference is massive.

As far as cooking it - get a chicken brick, rub with oil, salt and pepper, stick half an onion in the cavity, add half a wine glass of water or wine to the brick and cook in the oven set to the highest temperature for 90 minutes, take out, drain the liquid off and use it for gravy and rest the chicken at least 15 minutes before carving. Can't go wrong.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ICTC-31032-Digoin-Chicken-35x23cm/dp/B00022M2WU

http://www.gardenlifestyles.co.uk/Garden-and-Home-Gifts/Chicken-Brick

Answer 4

I like to put butter under the skin of the breast and then season the chicken in side and out side with salt, pepper, lemon pepper and a small amount of garlic powder, I usually use a small amount of cajun seasoning also. I bake my chicken on 350 degrees for about an hour, or until the drumsticks are soft when squeezed and the chicken is golden brown. You can add halfed or quartered potatoes and carrots or a one pot meal.

Answer 5

Clean chicken well. Pulling away the skin from the meat, slide little slivers of fresh garlic and add salt to butter and put between the skin and meat of the chicken. First make a tent of foil and place loosely over the chicken and bake for 25 min. Then, take off foil and let the chicken cook for another 20 min.(or) until a golden brown. Yum. The skin will be crispy and most of the fat will have cooked out of the skin and fallen to the bottom of the pan.

Answer 6

I agree with the roast it in water, but just wish to say I am horrified at the suggestion you leave a chicken to come to room temperature before roasting it! That is one the worst food handling sins you could commit and a very good way to ensure food poisoning.

Answer 7

put the chicken in the pan with about a pint of water in the bottom and then cover with foil, roast for about 1 hour 20 minutes then uncover and allow about another 40 minutes or so to brown off the water more a less steams the chicken and keep's it nice and moist and you can also make a gorgeous gravy with the rest of the water

or.......................

using your hands seperate the skin on the breast from the flesh and rub with loads of butter which makes the skin crisp up nice and keeps the breast of the chicken nice and moist !

Answer 8

Look in the produce section for fresh herbs. There's usually a poultry package containing sage, rosemary and thyme. Chop finely and mix with softened butter.
Take a wooden spoon and separate the skin from the meat. Don't remove the skin, just slide the spoon around under it. Put the butter/herb mixture in between the skin and meat.

Stuffing also helps keep the bird moist. Yum!

Answer 9

first I marinate the chicken in a mop sauce of vegtable oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cooking sherry, Jack Daniels, and cognac.
Then once in the pan, I add just a drop more garlic powder and fresh rosemary and basil from the garden. Toss into preheated 350 degree oven for about 1 1/2 hours and voila!!

Man, I wish it were lunchtime now..1/2 hour to go ^__^

Answer 10

First clean the chicken, then gently separate the skin from the bird. I mash up rosemary and thyme and put it in some butter and rub that on the bird making sure not to tear the skin. I put that butter on the breasts and the legs.

I stuff it onion, celery, orange, carrot, rosemary and thyme.

Roast away and you have good grub.