28th
Roast Chicken Fail
Looks good, right? Too bad it ended up being a nightmare. I followed Thomas Keller’s recipe from Ad Hoc for Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables. If only I had filmed the entire journey! I struggled with identifying the top from the bottom, which is quite embarrassing. The reason I couldn’t locate the wishbone was because I was feeling around the wrong end. Oops! The comedy continued as I attempted to tuck in the wing tips and truss the chicken. Even after watching multiple YouTube how-to’s, I still faced adversity.
After I put the chicken in the oven, I thought the worst was over. Unfortunately, the nightmare was only beginning. I purchased a 4-lb bird, as Keller instructed, and I stuck to his guidance on oven time. When the bird had reached 160°F in the thighs, I took it out to rest. After some time, I realized that the cavity juices were still pink. What was going on? I had recently calibrated my thermometer, so that couldn’t have been to blame. As the sirens in my head went off, I put the chicken back into the oven. I cooked the chicken for another 25 minutes or so, and I impatiently drained the cavity juices, which would normally be a terrible move. If the bird had been cooked correctly, the juices should remain in the bird so that they can be absorbed by the meat during the resting period. But, I had already accepted my failed first roast chicken.
As I carved the chicken, everything seemed to be good until I hit the wings and thighs. Then, my worst salmonella fears came true; there was some pink near the bones. At this point, it was too late to put it back in the oven. So, I cut the thighs and wings and heated them with the vegetables on the stovetop. Alas, I ended up with edible chicken.
So, what went wrong? There are so many factors that I could blame for this failed experiment. For one, maybe I can’t roast a chicken in a stainless steel casserole pan. It’s likely that my oven doesn’t get as hot as I think it does, and I should invest in an oven thermometer. These are things that I will keep in mind for my next roast chicken.
