Cluck, Cluck…Chicken

When I was seven years old, I started a summer long love affair…with chicken. I refused to eat anything but chicken. And by that, I mean that I ate nothing else all summer, not even ice cream! I barely remember this time, but to this day when I see family members who I haven’t seen or talked to in a while, they fall into two categories. One group will always ask “Do you still just eat chicken?”. It’s as if I was frozen in time, as a perpetual seven year old, being chased around our house, by my mother, my father, my grandmother, one of my aunts, or any other relative, my teeth tightly clamped against spoons and forks that deigned to attempt to put anything past my lips, that didn’t have a beak before its untimely demise. The other group will ask “Do you still eat chicken?”…notice the absence of the word “just”…This question is almost always asked in awe, as if it was incomprehensible to them that I could still find joy in eating something which had been my sole diet for, what must have been as a child, such an interminable time. My mother still tells the story of how she tried every day to come up with a different way of cooking this fowl. Roast chicken, fried chicken, stewed chicken, the list was long. It didn’t matter to me though how it was presented, as long as it was chicken. One might wonder why my parents chose to go along with this. I can only imagine that one reason might have been the ease of acquiring said chicken(s). When I was a child, living in Haiti, we raised chickens, and from chicken coop to my plate couldn't have taken much time or effort.

But as the story goes, one day when they had completely given up on trying to entice me to eat something else, anything else, I asked for rice to go along with my chicken. And that was the end of chicken as my sole source of nutrients, though that didn’t end the love affair. "Poule Dur" (roasted farm raised hen, simmered in a sauce infused with peppers, onions and garlic) is still one of my mother's go to dishes to cook for me, when I go back home. I still love a good chicken and have attempted tirelessly to produce the perfect roast chicken. DB happens to be one of those people who, 10 out of 10 times, can present a flawlessly executed roast chicken. I have always felt humbled…until today. By way of my friend Jessica, this recipe will produce a roast chicken that will delight you with its crispness and will have you sighing in delicious joy with it succulent, juicy meat. We devoured this, our midnight dinner, with a large quantity of homemade french fries, and a wonderful Shiraz from South Eastern Australia. Behold!

Slow-Roasted Chicken*
Larger chickens will obviously require longer roasting time. Add five minutes of cooking time at 375 degrees for every additional quarter pound of weight over three and one-half pounds (a four-pound bird, for example, would roast for a total of forty minutes at 375 degrees). If the bird is still not cooked after fifteen minutes at 400 degrees, keep the bird in the oven until the thigh meat comes up to temperature. Do not stuff or truss a slow-roasted chicken.

Ingredients
1 whole chicken (about 3 to 3 1/2 pounds), giblets removed and reserved for another use, chicken rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
salt and ground black pepper
vegetable oil for brushing v-rack

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush chicken with butter and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.
2. Place chicken, breast side up, on oiled V-rack set in shallow roasting pan. Roast 30 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees. Roast 1 hour. Increase temperature to 400 degrees and roast until instant-read thermometer inserted in thigh registers 170 to 175 degrees, about 15 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to cutting board; let rest 20 minutes. Carve and serve.



*Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated magazine