There are three skills that every human should be able to do well. One is to sew on a button, since life contains many situations where a button may pop off. The second is to be reasonably skilled in some of the more interesting examples of those situations which might cause a button to pop off. And third, you should know how to roast a chicken.
Well, the first your mom should teach you, the second you can only learn from practice. But today, gratis, I will tell you how to roast a chicken right.
- Compound butter is the key to this recipe. Have some ready made and softened to near-room temperature, along with a lemon, an onion, and a decent sized chicken, washed and dried with the insides taken out.
Towards the back cavity, carefully lift up the skin and, with a ‘hooking motion’ with your finger, separate the membrane from the meat. There will be a tougher membrane down the center you will have to break, and another one separating the area between the leg and the main breast area. Loosen the skin all the way over the top, leaving It attached near the neck.
- Now, take your compound butter and stuff it all the way under the skin until you have a layer
4 Responses
Illustrated, step-by-step instructions on how to sew a button at http://www.ehow.com/how_4604_sew-button.html. I like the intro, which reads, “Don’t be afraid to do this yourself; people have been doing it for years.” Whoever wrote this clearly has not watched “Buttonholes Gone Wild” and “Fear Factor: Needle Threading.”
(Second warning to snh–this is not a craft blog. You are flirting with DCFUD probation.)
On the contrary, um…::mumbles something about cooking being a craft, hides under the bed::
Excellent review of chicken roasting. I might add that several popular cooks (Jacques Pepin and Jamie Oliver) both recommend slicing the thighs a couple of times before roasting.
For the grillers out there, I’ve adopted James Beard’s suggestion to cut the backbone out of the chicken so that the can be laid flat, and then you can grill it like a large, floppy burger. This is good way to grill a whole chicken so that it cooks evenly despite the inevitable wide temperature fluctuations of gas and charcoal grills.
Why thank you! And of course, cutting the backbone out of a chicken is the first step to making that old favorite, Turducken