Juicy Roast Chicken Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.
• Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

Steps:

• Remove the neck and giblet package from the chicken and pull off the flap of fat if there is one. Rub hen inside and out with salt. Place the chicken in a pot that is just large enough to hold it and tall enough to completely cover it with water. Add cold water just to cover the chicken and stir briefly. Place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Remove the bird and rinse for several minutes under cold running water to remove all salt inside and out.
• While the chicken is in the refrigerator, make a simple stock by simmering the neck, giblets (no liver), 1 onion quartered, 1 leaf end of celery, 2 sage leaves, 2 thyme sprigs, and 1 quart water in a large saucepan over low heat for 1 to 2 hours. Strain and save the stock. Pull the meat from neck and add to the stock. Cut up the giblets and add to the stock.
• Preheat the oven 475 degrees.
• Arrange a V-rack for holding the bird over a pan to catch juices. Pour 1 1/2 cups of the stock into the pan, reserve the rest. Place the remaining onion, leaf ends of celery, sage leaves, and thyme sprigs, plus the orange and bay leaf, in the chicken cavity.
• In a small bowl, stir together corn syrup and butter. Brush the chicken lightly with this mixture and place in a V-rack, breast side down. Roast 20 minutes, basting with drippings in pan every 7 minutes. Remove the chicken from oven and turn so that one leg and thigh are up. Baste with the butter mixture and return to the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven again, turn completely over so that the other leg is up, baste well with the butter mixture, and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.
• Remove from the oven again and turn the oven down to 325 degrees. Leave the oven door partially open so oven temperature will come down quickly. Turn the bird breast side up, brush well with butter mixture and return to the oven. Baste every 5 minutes. In 5 minutes, check breast meat temperature using an instant-read thermometer. The ideal temperature to remove it is 150 degrees to 154 degrees. If necessary, place back in oven an additional 5 to 10 minutes until it reaches this temperature. Breast meat temperature rises about 2 degrees every minute in the oven at this temperature.
• Add as much of the pan drippings to the remaining stock as you can without getting the sauce too salty. Stir cornstarch into 1/4 cup cold water and stir it into the stock-drippings mixture in a large saucepan. Heat over medium meat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.
• Allow chicken to stand at least 15 minutes after removing from the oven. Carve or partially carve the chicken and arrange back in bird form on the serving platter. Pass hot gravy in a separate bowl.

Steps:

• Night before:
• Rinse chicken and pat dry.
• Mix salts, garlic powder and black pepper together.
• Liberally rub outside of chicken with salt mixture, then put the remaining salt mixture inside of the chicken cavity. Don't be afraid of the salt! Remember, we want the bird seasoned all the way through! I promise that it wont be salty. You may even want to use extra salt in the cavity, especially if you are using kosher salt.
• Put into a plastic bag and chill in fridge overnight. The longer the better.
• Day Of:.
• Preheat oven to 350 f.
• Put butter, lemon and garlic into cavity. You can also use herbs, onion etc.
• Pat outside of chicken dry, then rub the chicken with olive oil.
• Sprinkle Montreal steak seasoning on all sides. (Makes it really pretty when done).
• Place chicken in a roaster with a rack breast side up.
• Bake uncovered for approx 20 min per pound, or until thermometer in thickest part of thigh is between 175 to 180 degrees f.
• DO NOT OVERCOOK!
• Remove bird from oven and cover with foil. Allow to rest for at least 20 minutes, the longer the rest time, the jucier the chicken gets, so do not skip this step! It wont be juicy if it doesn't rest!
• Enjoy!

Steps:

• Let chicken and 1 tablespoon butter stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove and discard the plastic pop-up timer from chicken if there is one. Remove the giblets and excess fat from the chicken cavity. Rinse chicken inside and out under cold running water. Dry chicken thoroughly with paper towels. Tuck the wing tips under the body. Sprinkle the cavity of the chicken liberally with salt and pepper, and set aside.
• In the center of a heavy-duty roasting pan, place onion slices in two rows, touching. Place the palm of your hand on top of lemon and, pressing down, roll lemon back and forth several times. This softens the lemon and allows the juice to flow more freely. Pierce entire surface of lemon with a fork. Using the side of a large knife, gently press on garlic cloves to open slightly. Insert garlic cloves, thyme sprigs, and lemon into cavity. Place chicken in pan, on onion slices. Cut about 18 inches of kitchen twine, bring chicken legs forward, cross them, and tie together.
• Spread the softened butter over entire surface of chicken, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Place in the oven, and roast until skin is deep golden brown and crisp and the juices run clear when pierced, about 1 1/2 hours. When chicken seems done, insert an instant-read thermometer into the breast, then the thigh. The breast temperature should read 180 degrees and the thigh 190 degrees.
• Remove chicken from oven, and transfer to a cutting board with a well. Let chicken stand 10 to 15 minutes so the juices settle. Meanwhile, pour the pan drippings into a shallow bowl or fat separator, and leave onions in the pan. Leave any brown baked-on bits in the bottom of the roasting pan, and remove and discard any blackened bits. Using a large spoon or fat separator, skim off and discard as much fat as possible. Pour the remaining drippings and the juices that have collected under the resting chicken back into the roasting pan. Place on the stove over medium-high heat to cook, about 1 minute. Add chicken stock, raise heat to high, and, using a wooden spoon, stir up and combine the brown bits with the stock until the liquid is reduced by half, about 4 minutes. Strain the gravy into a small bowl, pressing on onions to extract any liquid. Discard onions, and stir in the remaining tablespoon of cold butter until melted and incorporated. Untie the legs, and remove and discard garlic, thyme, and lemon. Carve, and serve gravy on the side.