The. Best. Roast. Chicken. Ever

From time to time Rob goes to the store to do grocery shopping. I do most of it, but occasionally he heads out. He came back one day last spring with this really weird gadget he'd bought on sale. He said it was to roast chicken.


It wasn't impressive to look at: a small silver bowl and two large wires. Rob said it was advertised as being a roaster for barbecues and grills. I realized immediately that this was sort of a beer can chicken apparatus. But we don't have a grill that can accommodate a chicken in a vertical position.


It was easy to put together. I just snapped the wires into place. I put some wine in the bowl. I figured the whole reason beer can chicken works is that the heated beer steams through the roasting chicken. This doodad would allow the wine to get hot and because the chicken would be perched on the two wires, there would be more air circulating up into the chicken, along with the steam from the evaporating wine.


I have a pretty standard way of preparing roast chicken. I change the herbs around sometimes and alternate using wine and beer to put in the roasting bowl. But I always use lemon and I usually use shallots. I rinse the chicken off and squeeze the juice of a lemon all over the chicken, making sure to get the inside cavity. I then grate lemon zest onto the chicken skin. I place one lemon in the chicken cavity. I also put a few shallot cloves up there. I sprinkle the chicken with whatever herbs I'm using; I generally alternate among sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano and any combination. I then sprinkle garlic powder and onion powder. Finally I grind white pepper all over the chicken.


I place the chicken in a roasting pan and put it in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The smell is incredible and makes the house feel all homey, and the dogs love it. Our old cocker spaniel Jersey would just go and sit by the oven whenever I roasted chicken. She didn't want to waste any energy and she just love the smell of cooking bird.


The resulting bird is tender and juicy because the steam helps cook the bird. The flavors are amazing because the wine or beer vapors along with cooking shallots, lemons and herbs inside the chicken in in the bowl really add so much to the chicken. An added bonus of cooking the chicken this way is the skin is crispy all over and you can get to the little tenderloins on the back of the bird easily.

I've made chicken a million different ways over the years and this is really the best. It's better than a rotisserie because of the steaming of the meat and the skin is actually crisper this way than any other way of cooking, except for frying.

I have no idea where to get these little things. They're amazingly cheap -- as well they should be. They're an amazing innovation the world of roast chicken. I've seen some other vertical roasters out there, but this one works the best because it just uses wires to support the chicken. This is a case where less is definitely more.

Oh yeah, for the record, Rob claims this recipe as his because he found the little gadget. But it's not because a roasting gadget does not a great chicken make.