I do now, lol. Sorry, my head isn't quite right today. Besides, you didn't ask for a sauce, you asked for a recipe for roasted chicken!
I generally buy a young chicken, anywhere between 3-4 lbs. I also truss it before roasting. This is for a chicken weighing up to four pounds, if it's bigger, add 3 minutes cooking time for each pound over 4 at each stage of cooking:
Preheat your over to 400.
Combine a stick of melted butter with two minced garlic cloves, roughly a teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons each of basil, rosemary, oregano, and paprika.
Take a small onion (chopped into quarters) and a stalk of celery (cut into 3-4 pieces) and insert into the body cavity.
Put the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan, and rub or brush half of the melted butter mixture all over the chicken.
Put the chicken on its side with the leg facing the top of the oven. If it needs to be balanced, use balls of aluminum foil to prop it up. Bake for 25 minutes, then turn the chicken onto its other side, with the other leg facing the top of the oven. Bake for another 25 minutes. Then, turn the chicken breast side up and bake it for 25 minutes or until either the juices in the thickest part of the thigh are clear, or the temperature in the thigh is 180.
During the cooking, periodically baste the chicken with the remaining melted butter mixture.
This technique is a little labor intensive, but it is well worth it. I learned this technique in school and I've also seen it employed in restaurants and written about in cookbooks.
As for a sauce, sometimes I make a traditional chicken gravy with the drippings, and sometimes I put the drippings in a saucepan and add a little white wine or vermouth, lemon juice, perhaps a cup of chicken broth (or water with chicken bouillon), and let it reduce a bit.
-- Edited by Buttercup at 14:42, 2006-12-17
__________________
oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
i'm sure she'll let you know how bad i mess up...lol....this sounds really good though i want to try it in the next day or so....i haven't really cooked a whole lot before so wish me luck on makng this.
Looked wonderful until I saw the words, "Insert into body cavity" I am not so sure about that cooking vernacular (s.p.)...just sounds like something found in the Joy of Sex rather than the Joy of Cooking. "Tie up the legs, spank it until it squaks for more. Rub its thighs until they are creamy pink and smear them with butter and natural chicken juices that have been sucked out gently from the chicken." Flip its body on its side and assume the position."
Young chicken......sounds a bit naughty. " How about you come over next week and watch me insert celery into the body cavity of a young chicken........yeah...thats it , baby...they say I am the best."
Yes, I am delirious.....and a bit mad.
__________________
"The life given us by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal." -Cicero
Looked wonderful until I saw the words, "Insert into body cavity" I am not so sure about that cooking vernacular (s.p.)...just sounds like something found in the Joy of Sex rather than the Joy of Cooking. "Tie up the legs, spank it until it squaks for more. Rub its thighs until they are creamy pink and smear them with butter and natural chicken juices that have been sucked out gently from the chicken." Flip its body on its side and assume the position."
Young chicken......sounds a bit naughty. " How about you come over next week and watch me insert celery into the body cavity of a young chicken........yeah...thats it , baby...they say I am the best."
Yes, I am delirious.....and a bit mad.
There is a quote by Harriet van Horne that I enjoy, "Cooking is like making love, you do it well, or you do not do it at all," and there are some who feel that cooking and things of a more lascivious nature are, to some extent, intertwined. However, I was thinking nothing of the sort when I wrote that recipe, I simply used the verbiage that I am accustomed to in the course of my daily life.
Furthermore, I said nothing about spanking the chicken.
That would make the butter splatter, silly.
__________________
oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
My Uncle Joe used to make a cake called Better than Sex ....it was awesome, but I was young and single and could only say, "yummy, this tastes good.....but why is it called better than sex...I dont get "(flutter , flutter of the Bambi eyes). Like I could really say, "Oh yeah .....this is better than sex"...please.......I was single and not supposed to have that carnal knowledge.
The movie Like Water for Chocolate has a lot of cooking and eating mixed with lust and emotion. It is a must see.
You spank the chicken to prepare it for the butter smear...that heats it up a bit so the butter can drip, drip drip a bit once it is applied. The sizzle before the drizzle, you might say.
__________________
"The life given us by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal." -Cicero