Recipes - Main Dishes And Entrees - Poultry

[oreomama]

Cast Iron Roast Chicken with Crispy Drippings Croutons

Inspired by The New York Times article "Pan Drippings, Gloriously" March 6, 2009

Ingredients:

• 1 whole roasting chicken (3-4 lbs)
• Stale baguette 
• 1 lemon
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme
• Olive oil
• 4 tsps minced garlic
• Kosher salt
• Fresh black pepper

Directions:

1. Sprinkle salt on cast iron skillet (helps to make it non-stick) and drizzle olive oil into skillet as well.
2. Slice your stale bread and layer on the bottom of the skillet. Spread minced garlic on top of each slice.
3. Drizzle olive oil over the bread.  Sprinkle with salt.
4. Wash and pat dry your bird.
5. Rub lightly with olive oil.
6. Season the bird inside and out with kosher salt and ground pepper to taste.
7. Cut lemon into wedges and stuff into the bird along with herbs. 
8. Place bird directly on top of the layer of bread so that the bread is covered by the chicken.
9. Roast at 400 for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until juices run clear when poked with a knife. Be sure to rotate twice (25 minute & 50 minute marks)
10. Allow bird to rest for 10-15 minutes (if you can resist the wonderful smell).
11. Meanwhile, flip the bread to find the delicious, toasty goodness. Try not to eat all the bread while the chicken is resting. 

This is my all time favorite way to roast chicken at home and I make it at least once a week. Hope you enjoy it too. The croutons can be tossed into a salad or served with your favorite soup.

 

[Winchester]

I make this often with chicken pieces (legs and thighs, for example) then bag up the finished chicken for the freezer. It's a bit of work, but once you have it, you can freeze it in serving portions for use for quite a few meals. Perfect for nights when you're busy, too. So while it does take a bit of work, it's not complicated at all and you have chicken for future meals.  It's really quite good. Easy to halve the recipes.

You don't have to make the Vinegar Sauce if you don't want to. I don't because my family doesn't really care for vinegar sauce. I have an Espresso BBQ Sauce that they love, so I will often make and use that instead. Heck, use store-bought sauce, if you want, although the taste won't be the same. 

Jack's BBQ Chicken (for the Oven)

4 (3 to 4-pound) chickens, halved or pieces with skin on and bone in

Jack's Old South Meat Marinade, recipe follows 
1 cup apple juice to pour in the pan
Jack's Old South BBQ Rub, recipe follows 
Jack's Old South Competition Vinegar Sauce, recipe follows

Combine the chicken and marinade in a large non-reactive pan or glass bowl. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 6. 
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. 

Remove the chicken from the marinade and coat generously with some of the rub. Arrange the chicken, skin side-up, in a baking pan on a rack and pour the one cup of apple juice in the bottom. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and roast for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. It will basically steam-cook the chicken.
 

Uncover the chicken and continue roasting, basting with the sauce occasionally, until the skin is golden. 
 

Jack's Old South Meat Marinade:

2 quarts apple juice 
1 cup Worcestershire sauce 
1 cup orange juice 
1 cup light brown sugar 
1/2 cup olive oil 
1/2 cup lemon juice 
2 tablespoons hot sauce 
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 
1/2 cup salt ( I used less than 1/2 of this....a little less than 1/4 cup)

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Whisk until the sugar and salt dissolve. Let cool. 
Yield: 12-1/2 cups 

Jack's Old South BBQ Rub:

1/4 cup brown sugar 
1/4 cup sweet paprika 
1/4 cup kosher salt (I used less than 1/2 of this)
3 tablespoons black pepper 
2 teaspoons garlic powder 
2 teaspoons onion powder 
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
1 teaspoon dried basil 
Combine all ingredients and mix well. 
Yield: 3/4 cup

Jack's Old South Competition Vinegar Sauce:

2 cups cider vinegar 
3 tablespoons ketchup 
2 tablespoons paprika 
2 tablespoons brown sugar 
4 teaspoons kosher salt 
1 tablespoon hot sauce 
1 to 2 teaspoons cayenne 
1 to 2 teaspoons ground black pepper 

Combine all the ingredients in a nonreactive mixing bowl, mixing until the sugar and salt dissolve. Taste for seasoning, adding pepper as needed. Transfer to a clean, sterile jar and refrigerate. Will keep for several months. 
_______________________________________
WHAT I DO:  I use about 10 pounds of chicken and use only legs and thighs as I figure they'll all get done around the same time without over-cooking the legs. 

I prepare the marinade the night before I plan to use it, cool it down (I put ice in quart-size freezer bags and put the bags into the marinade. Once it's cooled, I put the marinade in the fridge. The morning of, I take the marinade out of the fridge and then put the chicken pieces in gallon freezer bags. I pour amounts of marinade into the bags, and seal the bags. Using my hands, I squish the bags to give the marinade the chance to get around all the chicken pieces. I have four gallon-size bags of chicken pieces. Put them in the fridge for 5-1/2 hours or so. (You might want to put the bags of chicken in bowls or pans, just in case a bag springs a leak.)

Heat up the oven. Put cooling racks on jelly-roll pans. Pour a cup of apple juice into each pan. Spray the racks just a little with Pam. Using tongs, take the chicken pieces from the bags and place on the racks. Then I liberally (very liberally) sprinkle the chicken with the BBQ rub, turning the pieces over and liberally sprinkling the other sides. Cover very tightly with foil and roast the chicken for about 90 minutes. 

Remove the foil and continue roasting for about 30 more minutes to crisp the skin a little. Let the chicken cool down to room temp, then put the pieces in a large pan, and put it in the fridge. Or at this point, you can serve the chicken with the vinegar sauce. If you want to freeze, simply put the chicken pieces in bag and toss in the freezer (LABEL THE BAGS!) When you want the chicken for a meal, just get it out the night before and toss a bag in the fridge to thaw. The next day, wrap in foil and reheat in the oven, while preparing the rest of your meal.

This probably sounds more complicated than it really is. And it makes excellent chicken, so it's worth trying. 

BTW, this is really for the oven. BUT, if you want, you can always toss the pieces on the grill to crisp them up a bit or to give the chicken a grilled taste. When we're having a picnic outside, I'll serve this chicken. I just roast it in the oven, let it cool, throw it in the fridge, then the next day, I throw it on the grill, just long enough to heat it up a bit.