Still Working on THE Roasted Chicken

So, I'm still working on the roasted bird. The first time I did it, it was bit of a flop. Edible but nothing to cuss about. The second time was much better but still, I need it to be even better. Cooking it breast side down worked MUCH better in making a juicy chicken boobie. Cooking breast side up definitely makes a dried breast. It was suggested in the article that I read, that I should cook breast side down for only a little while and then flip the bird back over during the last half of cooking. But I didn't do that. I cooked it breast side down the entire cooking time.


The first bird took FOR EVER to roast (3 hours) to reach safe temps. But the second bird cooked much faster with a slight increase in temperature. Roasting it at 450 degrees for the first 15 minutes and then 375 degrees for about another hour to hour and a half is where I'll stay with all my future chickens.

As for flavor, I have tried butter and herbs under the skin and inside the cavity (fresh with first bird, dried with second bird). I found that the dried poultry seasoning made a tastier bird than using fresh herbs. The dried herbs seem to keep their potent flavor during the long roasting proces much better.

The first bird I roasted, I stuffed the cavity with just onions (after rubbing with butter, herbs, salt and pepper inside and under the skin - also a method I'll keep). The second time, I added fresh peeled cloves of garlic (the cavity could only hold about 1/2 chopped onion and 6-10 cloves of garlic). The garlic really added a lot of flavor so it's staying.

The next thing that has been suggested is to add a punctured lemon inside, though I'm afraid I'll run out of cavity for all of these stuffings so I'm considering cutting lemons into slices and putting under skin and a few chopped bits of lemon with the onion and garlic inside.

Also, my last chicken improvement consisting of me adding a good bit of water to the bottom of the pan (chicken is on rack btw), and I think it really helped steam the chicken during cooking. It does not produce enough of its own juices to drip to bottom of pan and steam the oven.

Brining is a method that is often suggested but I will try that last as I want to see if I can make a most excellent, curse your dead ancestors up, chicken without going through that extra step. Though, my FB fan suggested brining chicken pieces before grilling, a method that I will most certainly turn to first as the grill can be quite drying.

So I keep on keeping on and when I get this "Curse the gods" most excellent chicken made, I will post the golden recipe. I'm getting very VERY close. :)