As some of you may know I have two blogs and I wasn't quite sure which one this falls under. I received this beautiful piece of pottery as an engagement gift. It's the first thing (besides cash) that we got as a gift. My mom always talks about the wedding gifts that she got that she didn't expect that she loves and uses all the time. Well, this would be one one of them for me.
It arrived in the mail from our family friends, The Freemans. At first I had no idea what it was. It looked like a weird chamber pot I remembered from visiting Valley Forge every year on school field trips. Then upon closer inspection... I found two plain business cards tucked in the box. IT'S A CHICKEN ROASTER!
The Chicken Roaster itself is beautifully made. It almost seems wrong to use it as a means to cook an ugly chicken. It really is a piece of art. It was made by Longacre Pottery View other items made by Longacre Pottery in Phoenixville, PA.
To start off. I went with a Medium sized (4.5 lb) BRINED whole chicken from Trader Joes. You can brine your own chicken very easily. I just liked that It was already done for me.
1. Pour Beer in middle tube area.
2.. Clean Chicken in sink. Season inside. (I seasoned with Crazy Janes Mixed Up Salt). Sit on top of tube with neck on top (Vertically). I plugged the neck with an onion and then used a metal skewer to fold the skin flap over it. I don't think you need to do this but I wanted to keep the onion in place and I didn't have anything else on hand to keep that sucker in place.
3. I made a rub with fresh rosemary, garlic salt, lemon peel, red pepper flakes, onion powder, pepper, oregano, sage, curry and possibly a couple of other things. I just kind of grabbed what I felt like. I mixed it with olive oil and coated the potatoes & carrots in the same mixture. and place around the bottom of the chicken. I ended up cooking half of them on the surrounding tray as I had too many in the dish.
4. Place in COLD oven, set to 350. I put mine on a pan because I always spill things. It also made it easier to take in and out of the oven. It also proved to be handy because I ended up using that extra space to cook all of my veggies.
Bake 20 minute per pound once your oven has reached 350 degrees.
There was a lot of juice left over in the pot so I made a great gravy with it but we didn't even eat it with the chicken!
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| This isn't even 1/2 of the juices that were in there! |
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| Oliver was stalking this chicken! |
What did we think?
The chicken was so moist. I had never seen anything like it that I was afraid that it wasn't cooked properly but the meat thermometer said it was fine and it wasn't pink. I cook all the time. Seriously. I just have never...EVER...seen a chicken this moist. Even in a restaurant. So I guess this has pretty much ruined chicken for us anywhere else. Did I mention that this was just me "winging" it? I can't wait to try out some real recipes on it! I'm thinking apples & lemon! Maybe some juice or wine in the tube?? YUM!
We can only eat chicken from home cooked on our Longacre Pottery! A kitchen MUST HAVE!
