Roast Chicken

Roast chicken is one of my favorite meals. It's one of those simple, comfort-food dishes. It's inexpensive and it's easy to do.

One of the advantages of cooking is that you can have it just the way you like it. The other two big reasons include saving money and avoiding a ton of chemicals that come in processed food. A search for recipes and techniques for roast chicken will yield hundreds of results. Some call for a steady heat. Some direct a high heat start followed by a lower roasting temperature. Some techniques call for a slow start followed by high heat at the end. They all work. I've tried many methods and have been most satisfied with this one.


Recipe # 36 Roast Chicken
1 pound chicken (3 or 4 pounds)
1 onion
1 celery stick
1 carrot
1 empty pop can
½ cup wine
1 cup water
salt & pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375. Remove excess fat from the chicken and blot it dry with paper towels. Removing water helps crisp the skin. Rub the chicken with oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and any other spice. For this chicken I added a little bit of cayenne pepper.

Fill the can about half way with water. Insert the can in the chicken. The can will hold the chicken upright so that even browning occurs. It also helps keep the chicken moist.

Add wine and water to the pan. Put the chicken in the oven until nicely browned, about 1 -1½ hours.

As long as the chicken is in the oven, roast some vegetables or potatoes. Pan juices make great gravy. Skim off fat and thicken.