Conference turris::cooks

    
    
    	My mother uses stuff called Kitchen Boquet that 
    	is black liquid and in a small bottle and she mixes
    	about 1 tbsp in with gravy to pour over chicken.
    
    	It's good, don't remember what's in it, but do remember that
    	is was fairly natural [no BHT, ABS, ABC or SHiT].
    
    	Personally, I just go wild with Paprika [Paprika's my
    	girlfriens], onions, sesame seeds and Worcestershire.
    
    

    If you have a microwave.........
    
    I smooth vegetable oil and soy sauce over the entire chicken then
    sprinkle with garlic powder, pepper and lemon/pepper.  It's very
    simple and tastes delicious.  Also I will cook red potatoes by
    pouring some of the juice from the chicken (when cooked) over the
    potatoes in a separate baking dish and then zap that.  
                  
    
    

  Try this: sprinkle the outside with paprika (best to use a "sweet"
  paprika of a good brand, like Szeged), garlic powder and salt. Roast
  normally. Goes great with buttered steamed broccoli, curried rice, and
  a bottle of beaujolais or chianti. My favorite - we have it almost
  every week.

    Learnt this one from my Portuguese au pair, and it's real nice:
    
    Puncture 1 lemon full of holes with a fork and stuff it in the chicken;
    melt 1 stick margarine (1/2 stick if you are trying to reduce
    fat intake) in cooking plate, add an extra lemon also punctured,
    express some lemon juice in plate, sprinkle chicken with salt/lemon.
    
    Peel potatoes, cook partially, then add around chicken for the last
    15-20 minutes. The potatoes soak the fat and the lemon and are
    delicious by themselves!
         
    It's a great favourite also with children.
                      
    Joana
    

    Preheat oven to 400...
    wash/dry bird
    1/2 Tsp tarrogon in cavity if unstuffed (I usually stuff with sausage
      stuffing)
    rub bird with butter (I use margerine)
    Put 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sherry
    turn and baste bird every 20 minutes til done
    
    mmmmmmmmm
    
    Rick

    .....no...you dont drink the water and sherry...it goes in the pan
    with the chicken........:-)
    
    Rick

    I _love_ garlic. Never use garlic-powder.
    
    So, put many cloves of garlic in and around the bird.
    After they are cooked the potency has departed, and they are soft
    enough and tasty enough to spead on a piece of fresh bread.
    It _really_ isn't too disgustingly garlicky in flavour - it's good !

    --  I've stuffed lemons in the cavity - works good.
    	You can also use onion, but its less tasty.
    
    --	George washington seasoining, comes in a packet.
    	Sprinkle liberally on the outside.

    -- Pieces of chicken.
    	Place in roasing pan quarters(pieces) of chicken.
    	Sprinkle with whatever you like:
    	(salt,pepper, Tarragon, garlic, lemonjuice combo is good.)
	Cook as a whole chicken;
    	after 20 minutes add chopped up veggies 
    	( mushrooms, carrots, onions, turnips, etc.)
    	Continue cooking till done.
    
    	NOTE: cooks quicker than a whole bird.  And you dont have the
	hassle of carving a boiling hot item, just remove from oven & serve.

    
    /Jeff

    Chop up 1-2 carrots, a medium onion, and a cup of mushrooms.  Put
    this mixture in the bottom of the roasting pan, making a bed for
    the chicken.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper, inside and
    out, and put a couple of stalks of celery and a couple of pieces
    of carrot in the cavity, and roast as you usually do.
    
    When the bird is done, pour off all of the chopped veggies and the
    juices into a bowl and wait a few minutes for the fat to rise to
    the top.  Skim off the fat and then put the veggies and the juices
    into your food processor and make a sauce out of them.  Season with
    salt and pepper to taste.  It makes a great, low-cal, low-cholesterol
    sauce for the chicken.

    I've been experimenting with low fat recipes and have come up with one
    for 'roast' chicken. The idea is simple. Take a roasting chicken and
    remove all the skin. This is not as difficult as it sounds. About the
    only place you'll have real difficulty with are the wings, I leave the
    skins on and simply pierce the central section to let as much fat come 
    out as possible; I also generally cut the wing tips of and add them to
    the giblets (which technically they are) to make a stock for sauce.
    
    You now flavour the bird: Sprinkle salt and pepper all round and in the
    cavity. So far I've then continued to flavour the bird in two ways 
    1) sprinkle herbs (Coriander, basil, thyme, marjoram) all over it and 
    2) smear the bird in barbeque sauce.
    
    The next phase is critical. Seal the bird completely in aluminium foil.
    The purpose of the foil is to stop the bird drying out as you 'roast'
    it.
    
    Bung the bird into the oven and roast it as usual, except....
    
    1. Being in the foil I find the bird requires a little longer (10-15
    minutes) to cook.
    
    2. 15 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the foil. You can then
    add more flavourings (i.e. heaping really thick barbeque sauce on is
    brillient as it cooks to a nice gooey sludge) before returning the bird
    to brown and take on more of a roast aroma. Any juices in the foil you
    let fall into the roasting pan and let them brown into quite excellant
    leavings whilst helping to keep the bird moist.
    
    The result is surprisingly good and, without the skin, reasonably low
    in fat but still very moist. I would say a marinading the bird in a soy 
    or lemon based marinade may induce even more flavour and moisture.
    
    My son and wife have demolished the above 'roast' chickens I've
    recently cooked.
    
    Angus 
                                                   

>>    I've been experimenting with low fat recipes and have come up with one
>>    for 'roast' chicken. The idea is simple. Take a roasting chicken and
>>    remove all the skin. 

	I've read that it makes little difference whether you remove the
	skin prior to baking as far as fat content goes.  Just don't eat
	the skin after it is baked.

        I prefer to keep the skin on for moisture reasons, then just
	not eat it.  The chicken is still very tasty.

	Karen

    How long and at what temp. do you roast the chicken?
    
    Thanks,
    
    Steve

    Re .11
    Based on a 3lb 5oz (1.5Kg) bird, fully defrosted: Roughly an hour at
    between 375F (190C ?) and 400F (200C). I tend to start it at 200C for
    about 10 minutes, then turn it down to about 180-190C for 35-40
    minutes, then whack it back up to 200C for tha final 10-15 minutes of
    'browning'.
    
    Re .10 The problem is 'I can resist anything except temptation'. Take
    this lovely roast chicken out, with its lovely crisp brown skin, and
    even though my conscience is screaming 'NO' my hand steadfastly feeds it
    to me.
    Angus

    
>>    Re .10 The problem is 'I can resist anything except temptation'. Take
>>    this lovely roast chicken out, with its lovely crisp brown skin, and
>>    even though my conscience is screaming 'NO' my hand steadfastly feeds it
>>    to me.

	I know... it is painful to discard something as yummy as that!

	Karen