What’s Cooking: Baked Chicken, Roast Chicken
I want to point out to you.
Pans The cooking pan plays a role in how the meat is cooked. If you are making roast chicken, opt for a pan with a rack. Resting the chicken on a rack as it cooks allows for the heat to circulate evenly around the meat and not sit in the pool of juices that accumulate as it cooks. Of course if you do not have a pan with a rack, you can still roast a chicken, it’s just that all the parts of the chicken touching the bottom of the pan will yield soggy skin.
For baked chicken, use a pan that is at least 2 inches deep, 3 inches is ideal. Too often I have seen people baking chicken in sheet pans only to have all the marinade evaporate, and the chicken dried out. It is such a shame and a waste. They then make gravy to pour over the chicken to plump it up because it is so dry. The gravy only helps on the surface though, because the juice from the chicken itself has already been extracted and dried out. If you bake the chicken in a deep enough dish, you do not have to cover it with foil to prevent it drying out.
Here’s why the sheet pans are not recommended for baking chicken - apart from being flat, they provide no protection from the dry hot air of the oven, so the marinade and juices quickly and easily evaporate. Baking the chicken in a deep dish allows the air to circulate at the top, under and around the dish as the meat cooks surrounded by juices.
There are many schools of thoughts on the temperature for roasting chicken some cook at a steady high temperature, others a high temperature at the start and then drop to a lower temperature and then there are those that start at a low temperature and move to a higher temperature to finish the cooking process. Many times, I have simply roasted the chicken low and slow. The raising and lowering temperatures for roast chicken really have to do with browning the chicken, giving it a bit of colour and making the skin enticingly crisp, or, rendering the fat from the skin so that when the chicken is tented (covered with foil after roasting), it becomes soft and delectable with the meat.
Baking chicken is much easier with temperature - a steady 350F degrees will get you where you want to go every time. Most baked chicken is done cooking in about 45 minutes (depending on quantity and size of cuts), while a whole roast chicken (depending on size) can take anywhere from 1½ to 3 hours. Butterflying the bird shaves about half an hour off the cooking time. To butterfly the chicken is to remove the spinal backbone, cutting the chicken in half and flattening the chicken.
The plus side of roasting a chicken is that you can stuff it. And let’s be honest, stuffing cooked in the bird is much more yummy than stuffing cooked by itself.
When you remove the roast chicken from the oven, let it rest 15 - 20 minutes before carving so that the juices can redistribute. If you want the skin crisp, leave the chicken uncovered, however, if you want the skin tender, cover the roast loosely with foil. For baked chicken, let it rest 10 - 15 minutes before serving.
Determining whether to roast or bake a chicken is really dependent on how you plan to serve the chicken, perhaps the occasion or simply a matter of personal preference.
Cynthia cynthia@tasteslikehome.org www.tasteslikehome.org