Fork and Gobble It: In Pursuit of the Perfect Roasted Chicken

Fridays on the BottleBlog will feature a food-related article, wine pairing, or travelogue. Today, Wine Manager Mark Ricca pursues the perfect roasted chicken!

Food and family are inextricably entwined in my house. That means when my Father-in-Law comes for dinner, I'm making roasted chicken. It is a dish I've always loved because I strongly believe if a cook can make a great roasted chicken, there's a pretty good chance they understand food and how to handle it. Properly seasoned, moist inside, crispy outside, it is a food that no one I know doesn't enjoy. It really doesn't require any special equipment other than a reliable oven, a roasting pan, and passion.

The starting point for me is the chicken itself. This is a clear case where you have to start with a great raw product to achieve a great finished dish. If you start with mediocre, waterlogged, mass produced bird, you may be able to make it good, but it will never be great. It should be fresh, never frozen. If it is packaged, it should state that there was no added water. Organic birds are a good way to be sure, but a good brand like Bell and Evans, or a good Kosher bird, can yield excellent results as well. I strongly recommend getting the chicken ready at least 24 hours in advance of cooking. This is another reason for purchasing a very fresh chicken.

Start the preparation by opening the package (if necessary) and removing the giblets, etc.. I separate the contents, freezing the livers in one package and the neck, heart and gizzards in another. Livers will be used for chopped liver or pate, and the rest is roasted and simmered for stock. Remove the wads of excess fat from just inside the cavity and discard or save it to render it. Wash the bird inside and out and blot it dry with paper towels. I season my chicken very simply. Coarse sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, branches of fresh rosemary, crushed cloves of garlic, and wedges of lemon.

Season the chicken inside first. Stuff the cavity with several of the crushed cloves of garlic, two or three of the rosemary branches, and several of the lemon wedges. Then, in order to aid in uniform cooking, I truss the chicken. I fold the wing tips under the bird on each side. I use cotton butcher's twine in cut to a length of about 36”, and starting from the middle of the piece, wrap the twine between the breast and the folded wing. I pull the twine under each leg on either side and cross the ends of the twine in front of the cavity. Then I wrap each side of the twine around the drumstick once and pull the whole thing as tight as you can before knotting it once. These were the three birds I had prepared that day.

Season the outside of birds liberally with the salt and pepper. I pre-mixed my salt and pepper in a small bowl knowing that it would be handier than reaching for a box or mill with dirty hands and that I would discard any that remained after I was done. I them put the chickens into a plastic tub and covered them loosely with wax (or parchment) paper, and refrigerated them for 24 hours. This will allow the garlic, lemon, pepper, and rosemary to begin to permeate the chicken meat, while the salt seasons as well but also draws out water to help make for a crispier skin.

What did I drink while all this hard work was taking place? O'Reilly's Pinot Gris 2009, an Oregon Pinot Gris with a great nose of citrus and melon, crisp but not overpowering acidity, and a great finish.

Next day: The oven gets pre-heated to 400F.

**The method that follows takes into account that I do not own a rack to fit into my roasting pan. If you have one by all means use it. I'd still start the birds breast side down and oil the rack and pre-heat to prevent damaging the skin.**

I put a small amount of olive oil in my roasting pan and put it into the hot oven for about 5 minutes to get the pan hot. The object here is to sear the skin slightly to prevent sticking. I use an old school, steel roasting pan. Getting it hot really prevents sticking and if you're going to work to get a crispy exterior, you don't want to blow it by having it stick to the pan. Put the chicken(s) breast side down in the pan, douse them with a little more oil and pop them back into the oven. This is to insure a crispy breast skin. The bird(s) will get turned about midway into the cooking time. Now let the bird(s) roast for about 15 – 20 minutes to allow some of the chicken fat to render and baste the still breast down bird for the first time. Basting is a big part of this process. I do it every 10 – 15 minutes or so. As more fat accumulates in the pan, I tip the pan to collect it in the side or corner and spoon it over every part of the chicken. Total cooking time is going to be about an hour and twenty minutes or so depending on your oven. After about half that time or about the third time you go to baste the chicken, flip them over breast side up. Continue to roast and baste for the next 45 minutes. I check for doneness the old fashioned way. I pierce the bird at the thickest part of the thigh and if the juice runs clear, it's done. If you are using a meat thermometer, I'd pull the pan out when you get a reading of 155F – 160F. The chicken will continue to cook and will carry up to 165F even though it is out of the oven.

The aroma of the rosemary, garlic and lemon is heavenly. Our sides that night were brussel sprouts which I sauteed in a pan on the stovetop, and in keeping with the Channukah season, a French potato pancake called Pommes Paillason or Straw Mat Potatoes, essentially a giant Latke. We cut it into wedges when finished.

Perfect wine match for (near) perfect roasted chicken? That night we drank Rustenburg John X. Merriman Proprietary red wine from the Stellenbosch region of South Africa. The rules went out the window because the John X. is a Bordeaux style blend that mixes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and three other Bordeaux grapes. Most people would consider it too heavy for the above dish. As I am very fond of telling customers in the store, drink what you like and don't make yourself crazy looking for a perfect pairing. It's perfectly okay.