The idea or impulse to buy a whole chicken and figure out what to do with it (even with detailed photographed instructions) has never ever occurred to me as necessary in my entire life. I cook for one. I rarely entertain and when I do I prefer fancier fare...like pizza.
Suddenly, thanks to Americas Test Kitchen, I started thinking about it a lot. Last week I broke down and bought the essential tools: roasting rack, meat thermometer and a big plastic container for brining.
Two days ago I did the deed and bought a scrawny looking bird at Whole Foods. ATK had tested the supermarket brands like Foster Farms and Perdue as inferior of course they're the ones that look all plump and pretty in their shrink wrapped packaging.
This little birdie weighed in at just under three pounds and cost about $8.
I got it home and brined it for a couple of hours, washed it, located and cut out the wishbone (after reading detailed instructions to do that in both my ATK printout AND a Thomas Keller recipe from an Alice Waters book) stuffed some lemons, thyme, sage and garlic inside after I'd sprinkled some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper inside. I then trussed the bird up (again detailed instructions from ATK and TK). Then I slid little pieces of butter under the skin, brushed melted butter over the entire bird, sprinked with salt and pepper and onto the roasting rack wing side up, into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, rotating two more times (other wing side up, then breast side up) for 20 minutes each. Birdie hit the 160 (breast) and 170 (thigh) degrees after exactly one hour.
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