Home cooked soul food: roast chicken
So much for cheap website hosting. My server crashed and burned, and I have been blogless and emailless for a few days. It’s strange how cut off from the world I felt, with my communication being restricted to just a mobile phone, landline, two other email accounts, Australia Post, the rest of the internet, and a good old-fashioned fax machine. I don’t know how I managed to survive.
But the time away from the blog gave me a chance to… you guessed it… do some cooking!
Last Friday I became fixated on roasting a chicken. Roast chicken is the best soul food I can think of. And I don’t mean pork ‘n chitterlings style soul food, I mean food that nourishes your soul when you cook it as much as it does when you eat it.
I never fail to be moved by the sight of a whole chicken dressed and ready for the oven. I think it’s one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Chicken must have been a pretty strong symbol of satisfaction throughout history. Even Henry IV, the King of France in the 1500s, promised a chicken in every peasant’s pot each Sunday as proof of France’s prosperity.
There are so many ways to roast a chicken and I love them all, but my favourite way is on the rotisserie in my oven. I chop a lemon into quarters and pop it in the cavity with a few fresh herbs. Or you can also mix some herbs (tarragon, parsley etc) with butter, make a pocket between the breast and the skin with the underside of a teaspoon and spread it inside. As it roasts on the rotisserie the butter spreads all through the chicken, basting the skin and making it go all crispy, herby and juicy. That’s the great thing about a rotisserie - it ensures that all the juices are spread throughout the meat, and evenly bastes the meat as it turns.
If you are using a rotisserie for the chicken, make sure you string up your chook properly otherwise you’ll end up with dry wings and legs. The first time I used my rotisserie I didn’t use any string and it looked like my chicken was doing the YMCA every time it turned on its side. The aim is to try and make the bird into a compact, even shape, so you string the ends of the legs together and tie the wings in nice and close to ensure the bird cooks evenly.