I cook Roasted chicken at least once a week. Sometimes twice a week. Sometimes I roast an extra chicken for a sick friend when I am cooking one for us.
Here is what the finished Roast Chicken looks like. Skin is crispy, crackling, and ready to eat off the carcass. The meat is moist and buttery. I've played around roasting chicken for the past 2 years. And good advice to a cook is Patience, Practice, and Persistence are words to live by. My guests, family, and I are so spoiled having chicken like this
Some of guests ask what I put on the chicken. Salt, Pepper, olive oil/vegetable oil, and a bit of butter under the skin. I use brined chicken from Trader Joe's most of the time.
So how does the chicken come out so good? I've cooked lots of chickens. And having my woodstone oven allows me to cook differently than most. The oven is set to 550 and I start with salt and peppering the chicken on both sides and cook in 12" cast iron skillet. But above I am showing the carcass on a Staub stand up rack. I have tried to cook the chicken on Staub stand, but I couldn't get the chicken to cook evenly. The high heat 550 and standing up the chicken for an hour would tend to burn the top.
So, I start cooking the chicken in a cast iron skillet.
The oven can get pretty hot and here it is cranked up high during heat up. The inside of the oven is 36" in diameter.
The below photo is shot at 1/2000 sec, f/4, 4000 ISO, 55mm
I turn the heat down when cooking. Put the chicken in for 10 minutes. Then flip it.
And 10 minutes later flip it again.
After 40 minutes of browning the skin in the cast iron is when I move the chicken to the chicken stand. For 30 of the 40 minutes I have had the legs face the flame. For the last 20 minutes standing up the neck is in the hottest part of the oven. Depending on how the chicken is cooking I can adjust the flame to increase the browning of the skin.
Cook for another ten minutes, then rotate the bird 180 for another 10. After 60 minutes I check for temperature.
And the chicken is done looking like the first picture I showed.
I use the juices from the chicken to roast vegetables. our current favorite are brussel sprouts. carrots are good slowly roasted.
My recipe is simple. What I have learned is cooking with my woodstone oven allows to practice cooking in a way that supports presence. I flip the chicken every 10 minutes. Many times I am checking the chicken by looking and listening to the chicken cook. The oven is at 4' so I can see and hear by just walking in front. of the oven.
I enjoy cooking because it is the time when I can totally focus like a meditation time on preparing food. Heat, time, technique are the knobs I can turn to adjust the food. My Dashboard is the physical sight, sound, and smell of the oven. Most wouldn't think of their oven as a dashboard. Oh the other knob I do turn is adjusting the heat which gives the right flame with the right heat.
