Haha, (kidding). You picked a good first recipe. Marcella was my first. Chicken. Roasted.
Now you need to make a stock! With the leftover bones and carcass...and a chicken salad for leftovers...unless you ate all of it. Nice to roast two at the same time using the oven heat so all that good effort has other meals. I have even split the second one into two halves and frozen them for another meal later on. With different side dishes.

Congrats on your first go at it!

Yay! for you! I adore roast chicken and especially when I take the time to put herbs and lemon under the skin.

Depending how I serve it, I usually save the carcass to make soup or broth. When I'm cooking for just the two of us, I can often get three meals out of one smallish chicken.

Sounds great! Roast chicken is a reliable favorite in my house.

When you decide it is time to find another way of cooking whole chicken, try simply spatchcocking the bird (means use shears to cut out the backbone, then open up and flatten the bird by popping the joints - should be videos on YouTube). Season the "inside", the flesh side, with salt, herbs, a spice rub, whatever. Place on a sheet of aluminum foil, on a baking sheet, flesh side down and skin side up. Fold up the edges of the foil so that the chicken is sitting in a sort of shallow bathtub of foil. Sprinkle a little salt on the skin. Cover the breast part with a piece of foil. In 350F oven. When thermometer in breast reads 110F, uncover the breast. When thermometer in breast reads 140F, remove from oven and let it sit, still in its foil bathtub on the sheet pan, for about 15 min. The flesh will have been braising in the juices collected in the foil bathtub, so it will be moist, while the skin will be browned. You can use shears to cut the chicken into pieces and serve directly from its braising bath.

This method is faster than roasting the intact bird. You can put thin slices of lemons etc under the chicken if you like, but not thick ones, as you want the meat to be down in the juices. If you want to help the skin get even more brown and crisp, first pat it dry with paper towels then you can dust the skin with salted flour or cornstarch or brush it with melted butter or glaze it with warmed honey, there are various tricks.

This post was edited by johnliu on Tue, Nov 12, 13 at 15:28

Who doesn't love roast chicken. It must be the unluckiest creature on the planet! Well done for cooking such a tasty one!

Hey - I was you, a year ago! Isn't it amazing? I mean don't you feel like such a serious cook once you start making roast chicken? ;) My first recipe was Jamie Oliver's which is ridiculously easy. I've done the 2 chickens before which works out nicely if you have a larger roasting pan. Jamie has you put the bird directly down on coarsely cut veggies so no rack's needed. I was so into it that I finally got a big enough roasting pan as well as a good-quality carving knife.

Here's Jamie Oliver's recipe, if you want to try different ones out (I'll try yours next time!):

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/perfect-roast-chicken

I always use more veggies than he suggests, and sometimes I add white wine if things start to dry out a bit!

Here is a link that might be useful: Roasting pan nice for 2 side-by-side chickens

I would never laugh. I just roasted my first pork loin!

Don't you just LOVE this forum? I've always come here to "lurk & learn". Everyone is so helpful & encouraging whenever anyone asks for help.

Betty

Thanks all for the tips and recipes! I threw out the carcass as my freezer already has so much frozen turkey broth and gel cubes. DH always cooks the turkeys so this time I was on my own with a bird. It was almost 9lbs so we do have leftovers.

Oh, just reminded me of the veggie under the bird. Last year we read about setting your turkey on four large whole peeled onions that caramelize during the cooking with the juices and keeps the bird off the 'floor' of the pan. Adds lots of flavor to the juices for your gravy.
-cutting a bit off each end for stability.

Go debrak! Bet your house smelled scrumptuous!

There's a general principle at work here: stuff cooked on the bone generally tastes better than boneless cuts.

The great thing about roast chicken is the scrumptious crispy skin. Wonderful stuff.

You can also try casserole roasted chicken. The skin doesn't get crisp, but the meat is extremely tender and juicy, and the recipe is hard to screw up.

Oh, Islay, if you're following this thread: a few years ago I mentioned a term 'Poulet Poele a l'Estragon' for casserole baked chicken. It's trussed, browned, then cooked in a closed casserole or Dutch oven. According to Julia (I just saw the sixties TV show on cooking this dish) the dish got the name 'poele' (which, as you pointed out, means frying pan) because if a cook didn't have a dutch oven, he put an upside down frying pan on top of the frying pan in which he browned the bird, making an enclosed vessel in which the chicken cooked, and so the term 'a poele' was applied to this technique.

Whatever the etymology, the dish is fabulous--Meryl Streep once said it was her favorite way to cook chicken. And she played Julia in a movie, so she must know, LOL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Casserole roasted chicken with tarragon

I have never roasted a chicken. (blush). Looks like I better catch up with you!

Woohooo! Roast chicken is hubby's very favourite meal. It is daunting at first, but now you've got the hang of it!!

I've been tempted to spatch-cock the bird and with John's precise direction it must be on my to-do-soon list!

Debrak, congratulations! I would never laugh about roast chicken. As others have said, it's pretty much the perfect meal. Great the first time around, and then there are all kinds of things to do with the leftover meat. And, finally, the carcass can be made into stock. It's the meal that keeps on giving.

It wasn't that long ago that I was afraid of grilling a chicken outside. But the wonderful members here gave me the courage, and now I don't know what I was worried about. The same goes for cooking a rib roast. Sometimes all you need is some encouragement.

I've got a whole chicken thawing in the fridge right now for dinner tomorrow. You inspired me. I've got a meeting tonight, and I know I'll be too tired to do anything creative tomorrow. Roast chicken to the rescue.

45 min in the toaster oven. Skin brushed with tare sauce, and then, halfway through, with honey. Turned on the broiler for two minutes at the end.

Good for you, debrak, it's a "go to" meal here and leftovers are always good for pot pie, for sandwiches, for a sesame chicken dip. There are lots of things you can do with leftover roast chicken.

If you feel inclined, next time just take that carcass and plop it into your crockpot with a carrot, an onion and a stalk of celery, turn it on high and let it cook until the broth tastes good. You don't even have to peel the onion, just wash your vegetables, chop them into two or three pieces and put them in the crockpot. Add salt, pepper, a bay leaf if you like, plop the chicken on top, cover with water and let it cook. It'll take hours, I usually do it overnight and into the next day, sometimes 18 hours. When it reduces to about half and tastes good, strain out the solids and use up the stock or put that in the freezer, much less room necessary than the whole carcass.

In the meantime, isn't it fun to try new things? I'm impressed with a 9 pound chicken too, now THAT'S a chicken! Before you know it you'll be watching Jacques Pepin on YouTube and deboning chickens. (grin)

Annie

Congratulations Debrak. It is a "go to" meal here too. Especially on a work night. One of the easiest dinners to make. It is on the top of my short list of favourite dinners.

~Ann

We roasted a chicken on Sunday and are having leftovers tonight. I'll probably make what's left into chicken salad or maybe chicken and noodles. The carcass will go into a stockpot. Thanks to Ann_T I started pre-salting...it doesn't seem to matter what temp, it's always moist. We bought some huge but flavorless chickens and pre-salting made them good. Need to do the lemons for the next one. Yum.

Johnliu, that chicken looks like she need a little purse and some pretty shoes. The last one I spatchcocked looked all disjointed. Like it was doing, well, a chicken dance.

Funny pic, john. It'd be criminal, like murder one, to hack up that coy little fillie.

The onion under the chicken sounds like a great idea. I actually thought of doing the chicken on the wood pellet grill but it was raining all day. John, thanks for the photo, now I understand what you were describing. I actually have watched that deboning video, LOL. I'm not sure I'm up to that yet but I've got another 9 lb in the freezer!

Nine pounds is one heck of a bird.

John, that chicken looks mighty fine. What I like about spatchcocking besides even cooking is that the seasoning/butter tends to stay put and seems to be "there" more. At least in my mind, it does. :)

Sleevendog, I like the idea of cooking the turkey on onions.