Chicken report

Let's pick up the thread of my last post. In my account of the Pot Roast, I provided commercial interludes of my chicken preparation. I did not forget the advice given me by my readers after my last quest for chickeny excellence. (By the way, is "chickeny" really the best adjectival form of chicken? Suggestions?) And so, after letting the chicken dry itself in the fridge the past few days, I drew it out today for final preparations.

I ran my fingers carefully between the skin and the flesh, on both sides of the chicken, separating the skin. If you do this, be careful, especially on the breast side, or else you may tear the skin. Then I took some butter and some fresh rosemary, and mashed it all together. I kept some of the rosemary to insert in the cavity, along with a cut up lemon. The rosemary-butter combination I jammed up under the skin. I did tear the skin a bit, but a toothpick works well to hold it together:

After this, I sprinkled a bit of baking powder on both sides, but much less than before. Then I coated everything with generous amounts of olive oil; then generous amounts of coarse salt and freshly ground pepper:

You will notice the chicken is now breast-side down. My usual method is to cook it back up for most of the time, and then flip it breast-up for the last 30 minutes or so. I am going to try this one more time. My goal is to get reasonably good skin on all sides, and I want the breast side on the gravity side of the drippings. But what I don't know is whether I can achieve the excellent skin that I want. We'll see.

And, yes, it would look better if it were trussed, but I figure that the skin gets crispier in more places if it isn't. In the end, I care less about how it looks when it comes out, and more about how it looks and tastes on my plate -- and in my belly!

In a few minutes, I'm going to pop it in the oven at 450 degrees for about a half hour, then turn it way down, as low as possible, because I must leave it unattended while I hear confessions and offer Mass. I'll be back around 6 pm or so.

UPDATE, 8:06 PM...

Here is the chicken, right out of the oven...

And here is the spinach, being sauteed...

So, the chicken was really, really good. Very juicy, just right in every way, except...

The skin wasn't crispy enough. Really good! But, not quite there. The quest continues...