I can't understand why people buy those supermarket chickens. A butcher I once worked with had previously worked the rotisserie in another supermarket and told me that the chickens they use are fairly small, about 2lb 10oz. For what it costs to buy a supermarket chicken I can buy a 5lb 11oz chicken (with a much higher meat-to-bone ratio), toss it into the oven and with very little effort have twice as much meat!

The thing that makes me most annoyed is that in the town where I shop, where there is a large proportion of people on welfare, it's the people on welfare who buy the most fast food and convenience food, which is nuts IMO as they get significantly less food for their dollars. And then they send their kids to the school where I work, hungry.

A trick is to separate the skin from the flesh (push your fingers between the two) as much as possible. This allows fat to render out and the skin to crisp. Similar to inflating the duck for Beijing roast duck.

Dusting the skin with flour and a little salt also helps it dry, brown, and crisp.

I’ve also tried larding the chicken with bacon (or herb butter) placed between skin and flesh. Reduces the crisping but adds flavor.

The “beer can” technique is to open a can of beer, set it on the roasting pan, and place the chicken upright with the can in its cavity. The standing chicken renders off fat, and the boiling beer keeps the chicken moist. There are wire racks that do the supporting thing minus the beer.

A couple of halved lemons inside the chicken add flavor and moisture.

You can also stuff a chicken like you would a turkey.

Lately I usually spatchcock the chicken, liberally herb and salt the meat side, and roast it flat, first meat side up then turning to meat side down. It roasts faster and, I think, more evenly which means the breast doesn’t dry out. A spatchcocked chicken can also be grilled.

There is the deboning method, as taught by the eternal Jacques Pepin (videos on Youtube). Like spatchcocking but better. I always grill a deboned chicken. This year, I plan to debone and grill a turkey.

I eat a lot of chicken. It is cheaper (and better for the environment, I’m told) than beef. Mostly, cheaper.

Supermarket roasted chickens are very good.

What you need to do is to find the supermarket where they actually do the roasting in the store. You ask the person who is in charge of that department and ask for their schedule. You want to be there just when they are removing the roasted chickens hot right off the big conveyer rotisserie. Better then most good restaurants.

I will be roasting (on hardwood charcoal) one soon. As soon as I can find the counter balance weight for my rotisserie spit.

dcarch

I love a home roasted chicken. I'm especially fond of Mary's Chickens, if they are available where you live (mostly west coast, maybe?). I stuff mine as full as I can get it with curly parsley - really cram it in. Roast at 375 for about 1.25 hours, depending on size. The parsley must steam it from the inside out and makes it very moist. The skin still gets nice and crispy.
I also think it's hard to beat a Costco roasted chicken. They are absolutely delicious, moist and flavorful and affordable. Cheap, even.

The smell of a roasting chicken has to one of the most tantalising smells on the planet!

I have never bought a rotissery chicken from a store...I have eaten them at other's houses but I find them overly salty. Roasting a chicken is so dead on simple I can't imagine why anyone would buy one precooked. It's an easy entertaining thing for me. I don't do fancy dinner parties any more, meals are more likea grand kid and SO or a "child" or a couple of good friends. I pick the excess fat out of a whole chicken, put "whatever" into the cavity ..onion lemon garlic herbs or just a sprinkle of salt, rub the outside with "whatever" soy sauce, butter, a BBQ rub, butter and turkey seasoning, balsamic vinegar.... and put it on a piece of doubled heavy duty foil with the edges curled on the grill, preheated and set for indirect heat and fix the rest of the meal. In 25 to 45 minutes there is a crisp juicy delicious chicken ready....alas no pan juices, but also no pan to clean. Eaasy ;peasy meal!

Roast chicken is one of the simplest meals possible. More foolproof in my book than frying an egg, which I always mess up. If the chicken is good quality it needs nothing more than a sprinkle of crunchy salt, some rosemary and or lemon. Start it breast side up and turn it over mid way through cooking. We buy ours from an organic producer in the farmers’ market. They are not the cheapest but they feed two of us for three meals. I can’t compare with a ready cooked chicken since I’ve never tried one.

You can also put all the bones in a pot cover with water, add an onion and a carrot or two and any leftover fat scraps if you have them and slowly simmer for hours to make a very nice broth.

Roasted chicken is the most difficult cooking experience. Difficult to have moist meat and uniformly crispy skin.

You will find most famous chefs claim to be able to produce the perfect roasted crispy chicken, but that's because they can't tell the difference between browned skin and truly crispy skin.

This is the best example of great roasted chicken:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0P7sizQbyA

I don't call these with crispy skin, they do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-AUIvRSEBA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWLt6G85zC4

dcarch

It's not hard to make a good baked chicken!

This is an age old disagreement on this forum. Dcarch takes "crispy" literally, as in when you bend it it breaks. I'd imagine this is difficult to achieve uniformly without overcooking the chicken.

I'm thinking for most people it's not quite so literal. There may be some truly crispy areas, bit overall the primary goal is uniformly well-rendered and browned. As shown in the latter videos in dcarch's post.

The closest I get to dcarch crispy is with Jacques Pepin's chicken thigh recipe, starting off skin side down in a cold, non non-stick skillet.

For a dish that everyone claims is dead simple, I've never been satisfied with my roast chicken. I've tried high temperature and low, roasting pans and smaller CI skillets. I remember even trying to recreate the first video dcarch posted, years ago. Some turn out better than others but I've never made one where I think, "THIS is what a I was going for!"

I roast mine butterflied and flat (saving the spines with the giblets in the freezer for stock, and excess fat for rendering schmaltz), on a bed of sliced onions, chunks of carrot, and whatever other veg I think will be nice, in the steam oven, or with a slug of wine or beer in the pan. The skin gets brushed with whatever sauce/dressing is in the fridge, but with some oil and sugar in it (“suntan lotion”), and sprinkled with dried herbs, pepper, etc. The skin gets crispy except in the creases. It's awesome, and dead easy. The hardest part is cutting through the pelvic bone, and the butcher will do it if you don't want to (if he doesn't forget himself and cut ”restarant style”). I prefer smaller chickens, 3.5-4 lbs. (without the giblets), and also heirlooms whose thighs and breasts are fairly proportional and whose legs are meaty and not like drumettes.

Roasting a chicken is one of the easiest cooking things to do. Dealing with the carcass and making chicken soup, that's a little more fussy . . . organic chickens can be extra delicious, depends, the "organic" label can be a scam in some situations. Scam as far as quality of feed and how the chickens were raised . . . if you can get them from someone you know, fresh chickens are amazing.

I agree it's pretty easy to roast a chicken with great results. One of my favorites is Ina Garten's Lemon Roasted Chicken with Croutons. I do often buy rotisserie chickens from Sam's Club for various dishes, such as pot pie, enchiladas, tetrazzini, chicken salad and so on. Just easy, convenient and tasty.

The only rotisserie chickens I have bought were from a delicatessen/bakery across the screen from some friends' apartment in Mexico City. That store made a lot of roasted chickens, and so it was easy to buy one that had just been cooked. Of course I prefer to roast chickens myself, but in this case, I was visiting and not at home, and therefore buying a precooked chicken was a very nice convenience.

The bakery attached to one side of the deli was excellent also, and so I could buy warm, fresh bolillos to telera rolls at any time. There was an outdoor stand in front of the bakery where a woman made fried quesadillas that I loved.

Here are people standing in line to buy rotisserie chickens.

I agree it is not at all complicated. I don't want 'crackling'. Nor do we like bacon so over cooked it is 'crackling' and breaks into bits. Nor do i have interest in 24-48 hour coolers for sous vide.

I can make nice meals without too much fuss.

I'm well aware how it's done like the first dcarch video. Good enough for me is a dry brine overnight in the fridge uncovered. I get crispy skin with a bit of chew.

Spatchocked, the backbone cut out with scissors to spread/flatten, and have the full thighs/legs/breasts to recieve the heat and even cooking on the skin is my go-to method. Adding veg after 20 minutes and a full tray under on a lower rack....

Last weeks roasting i added a foil packet of golden beets and potatoes.

Add a glaze...miso/soy/ginger or a mediteranian rosemary/lemon/honey...etc, the last 15-20 minutes.

This time of year and all winter we roast every 4-5 weeks.

And stock...

Having stock in the freezer all winter...such a pleasure for quick meals.

Three pints with lots of chicken and 1/2 pints for other soups in the freezer.

Anywho, congrats on your first roast. We often roast two chickens side-by-side in my turkey roaster. 'Piggy-back' that oven heat for many meals.

Small freezer?. Just roast more often and have a few pints, 1/2 pints.

Save your veg scraps for stock. I use leek tops, celery knob ends, carrots,....

My chickens are local pasture raised. Not everyone has that option so don't sweat that.

Costco rotiserie chickens are 'lost leader' and a da*n good value. Still 5$ i think. Food prices are only going to go up. Take advantage of what is available.

We pick up a Costco roast chicken every time we go - it is cheaper than buying an equivalent size broiler.

Does anyone pour boiling water on their chicken skin before cooking? I'm not sure where I leaned it. I've done it a few times but don't remember if it made the skin crispier or not. Injecting brine into the chicken: Is the water absorbed into the flesh? Are there pockets of water? Seemed like a lot of water to inject. I would love to taste Chef Chilly's chicken to see if it's really worth all that effort. Because that is A LOT of effort!

Nobody is above the law --- including Costco.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/06/23/costco-chicken-lawsuit/

Wow! All I said was it was the first time I roasted a chicken!

nancyjane, I was thinking your meal sounded wonderful. I do roast chicken now and then, but your combination sounds yummy. I have to admit that I've never roasted it in any of my several La Crueset pans. That is another thing I will have to try.

Gigi, I don't know the answer to your boiling water question, though it might help separate the skin by melting some of the fat under it. What it made me think of, however, was plucking. The boiling water loosens the feathers.

The best roasted chicken I've ever had was the Lechon Manok in Manilla, PI. Not sure what made it so special but I've tried to duplicate it using googled recipes with not much luck.

They roast several dozen at a time on long spits over open coals.

I used to buy a dozen free range chickens from a Mennonite farmer a couple times a year but haven't since Covid began.

I think there was a famous line in the move Mildred Pierce - something like 'if you put a chicken in the oven, what's to stop it from cooking?' 😄

And I've never had a rotisserie chicken that was as good as roasted - they always seem kind of overcooked and greasy to me - and they certainly are smaller, that's for sure! Most of those I've had were from either Whole Foods or Publix.

FWIW, when I roast chickens now, I always cut the birds down one side of the backbone and flatten out, then roast @ 400F on parchment paper lining a shallow pan. My 2 fave seasonings are lime juice, curry powder and salt, or Old Bay and lime juice - lemon or orange juice works too. I'm very liberal with seasonings.

Just wanted to say for years I’ve heard talk about Judy Rodgers’ Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken. Lots of links for it, including this one.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015770-zuni-cafe-chicken

My brother has been bugging me to go to Zuni's for years! I finally got a reservation then couldn't go. But really I thought, how good could their chicken really be? I think I'll give it a try. Wow, no decent dinner hours available until the end of October!

@gigi4321, I heard about the chicken years ago from a caterer. I've continued to hear about it since then but never actually tried it. Gotta get on it!

Oh, yea -- roast chicken! One of the simplest things anyone can make. Sounds like yours came out great -- enjoy the leftovers!

Thanks! Made chicken enchiladas and will be making base for soup tomorrow.

"------I used to buy a dozen free range chickens from a Mennonite farmer-----"

I am sure you realize "Cage Free" and "free range" are not the same. Free range chickens taste better because they eat bugs also. You can get free range chickens in an Asian store.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRbS0SCwbO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4hK2F98JwM

dcarch

FWIW, I buy organic chickens for $2.99/ lb. here at Aldi.

Pouring boiling water over the skin is supposed to make the skin tighten up and crisp up better. You do the same thing with Beijing roast duck. I don’t know how much difference it really makes. Maybe the next chicken will get the boiling water on one side only?

This entire discussion has made me hungry :-)

I use shredded chicken a lot and my go-to for that is typically a rotisserie chicken from one of two local grocer stores - quick, easy and relatively inexpensive. I like them a lot. But with recent inflation, the prices have escalated and the nearest Costco is a 40 minute drive. I can get a 4-5 lb whole roaster for the same price I'd pay for a rotisserie bird half that size!

The bird is in the oven as we speak and the house smells wonderful :-) Dinner tonight, enough for a couple of sandwiches and plenty of leftovers to shred. Crisp skin is not a requirement but I sure don't mind it. I make a paste with butter, garlic granules, S&P and fresh chopped herbs and spread it under the skin and stuff the cavity with chunks of lemon and whole garlic cloves.

Pretty darn easy and I will be doing this more often. 😋

That lovely house aroma from a roasting chicken....

I was roasting one at mothers one day (mother who had begun rarely cooking, only reheating in the microwave) when her paper boy came to the door. He was so taken by the wafting scent of the roasting bird, I think he forgot why he'd come - collecting his months fee. That young boy was so excited, it wasn't done or I'd have asked him in and made him a plate. I did invite him to come back later but he said his mother would have planned their dinner and since she didn't know us, probably wouldn't let him ;)

Congratulations, nancyjane, now you've spoiled yourself and will have to continue roasting chickens!

I raise my own chickens and process them for the freezer, so I always have a supply available. A couple of mine got a....little....um....big. Like 8 pounds worth of big, LOL. I brined one, stuffed it with fresh herbs from the garden and roasted it in an open pan at 450F. It took about an hour and a half and it turned out really well, one of the best I've made. I don't eat chicken skin, so crispy didn't matter to me, but everyone else loved it and were impressed with all the crunchy bits while the meat stayed moist.

Obviously, I got more than one meal from that bird. We had the traditional roast chicken/mashed potatoes/green vegetable meal, then had chicken sandwiches. I made a batch of chicken enchiladas and still had enough chicken to make a batch of chicken and rice soup. The carcass became stock. That chicken definitely did not go to waste.

I still have three whole chickens in the freezer, along with packages of "parts", so I see a roast chicken in my very near future, thanks to a reminder from nancyjane.

Annie

I do have to say that the Costco chickens have stayed at around $5 for a large roasted chicken so lower income people can feed their families for a reasonable price! Costco also pays their people livable wages and send them to school to up their thing in the company!

Yes, Costco is one of my favorite companies. The ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay there is a lot less than at their competitors. They also close on holidays so their employees can be with their families.

I thought of an issue I always have, which is if I get the breast skin nice and crisp, it doesn’t stay with the meat, so after cutting the breast into sections I have to pick up the loose skin pieces and drape them back over the meat. When I used to cut up meat for the kids, this was irritating. I guess it’s not exactly the biggest problem in the world, but still . . .

I do the one from Epicurious, (Thomas Keller, I think.). Pat dry a chicken inside and out. Truss, put it in a enamel pot over a bed of (insert veg here--I've used carrots, onions and potatoes.) Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Cook uncovered at 450 until 165 degrees. Perfectly crisp skin and moist interior.