Given the variety of interesting things I prepare on a fairly regular basis, it's shocking to me that I had never done something so basic as roasting a chicken. So this is what I did on Friday night. To be honest, it wasn't even my intention to roast a chicken; my original plan was to make some game hens (certainly would have been on the "interesting things" list). But alas, the supermarket only had frozen game hens. So I found the smallest (3.5 lb.) chicken in the place and decided I probably should learn to roast the little guy. When I got my chicken home, I went to my go-to source for learning things about which I have no clue: Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
For those of you who may not know this, I'm generally a squeamish person. In fact, I hate touching raw meat. It's slimy to me. And it makes me queasy. (This is why I'm a chemist, not a doctor.) So challenge number 1 was getting those gizzards out of the chicken. I wish someone had video-taped this for my mom. I couldn't bring myself to reach in and grab them, so I gently used a fork (and was making a "yuck" face the whole time) and pulled them all out. I really had no clue what to do with them, so I just left them on my counter in a bowl. (Someone out there right now is screaming "MAKE A STOCK!") After I got the gizzards out, I was too queasy to go after the neck. So I just left that little guy right where he was.
Challenge number two (after I seasoned it with salt, pepper, butter, and tarragon) was to truss the chicken. Julia Child has a great pictorial guide to trussing your chicken so that he remains nice and compact during cooking. This process required me to touch the chicken though. Not fun. I felt a little bit awful as I strung the twine through the chicken but generally was far less grossed-out when all was said and done. I would even go so far as to say that it looked pretty good when I finished. Tightly tied up and ready for roasting!
Challenge number 3 (and this was the easiest!) was roasting the chicken to perfection. Thanks to the handy dandy meat thermometer that Chris's mom gave us for Christmas, the chicken was cooked through and not the least bit dry. I basted it every 10 minutes or so over the 1 hour 20 minute cooking time. By the end, it was a very nice golden brown color. Right after I took it out of the oven though I had the realization that I had been so focused on my chicken that I absolutely forgot to cook everything else! Luckily mushrooms sautee very quickly and you can steam carrots in the microwave in 4 minutes. Lastly, I used a few tablespoons of the chicken pan juices with 1 cup beef stock and 1 minced shallot to make a quick pan sauce. I can now say that I've successfully roasted a chicken!
