Quick Herb Brined Roasted Chicken

I know, I know in order to brine a whole chicken properly you need to rub an herb mixture liberally all over the chicken and refrigerate for 24 hours. In my cooking class we only had a little over an hour to make the Quick Herb Brined Roasted Chicken. It turned out so delicious, the meat fell off the bone and it was tender and juicy.

You’ll need a roasting pan, kitchen twine and gloves if you prefer when handling a chicken. I do and I think 90% of the class did including the chef wore them.  I have this thing about raw chicken and where it’s been and what I’ve used to prepare it. The chef also talked about cross contamination. For example, if we used a knife or tongs on a raw piece of chicken and then put the utensil on our cutting board, we couldn’t use the cutting board again to cut up vegetables or anything else.

Since our class has limited time the herb mixture was already prepared, but this is going to be your first step.

Ingredients

Herb mixture:
   3 tablespoons sea salt
   1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
   1 tablespoon fresh flat leaf parsley, minced
   1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
   2 teaspoons lemon zest

4-5 lb roasting chicken, pat dry
2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F

Put your gloves on. Place chicken on a roasting pan. Drizzle the olive oil on top side the chicken then rub all over. Loosen skin from the meat with your fingers, be careful not to tear the skin. Rub the herb mixture over the chicken and under the skin. Be sure to get under the wings. Turn over breast side up. Drizzle some oil. Rub the herb mixture over breasts and place the remaining herb mixture in the cavity of the chicken. Tuck the wings and tie the legs together using the kitchen twine.  Place chicken in the oven cook for 1 hour or until internal thigh temperature is 165. Transfer chicken to cutting board let sit to cool 10 minutes. Remove twine. Carve chicken and serve with your Easy Homemade Gravy or make your own gravy with the juices from the roasting pan, but you’ll need a fat separator. How many of us have one of those?  

Alternative Cooking Method including a mirepoix

Ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 whole lemon, quartered
1 yellow onion, cut into 1” pieces
1 celery stalk, cut into 1” pieces
1 large carrot, cut into 1” pieces
Freshly ground pepper, optional
2-3 cups chicken stock

Directions:

A lot of times people stuff their birds with vegetables and discard them when it’s done cooking, but this often times doesn’t allow the chicken to cook properly all the way through. If you want your chicken to absorb the vegetable’s flavors you can still do that by placing the garlic, lemon, onion, celery and carrot on the bottom of the roasting pan with some chicken stock. (Enough to cover vegetables but not enough to touch the chicken) You also need do this half way through the cooking process and reduce the heat to 375F.  So, 30 minutes at 400F, then add the vegetable mixture and stock, pepper to taste (optional) then cook 375F for 30 minutes. Internal temperature still needs to read 165 in the thigh. Yum Yum!