How to roast a bird Purposefully Primitive style
25 April 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Two bird cooking methods, one easy and one more elaborate. Whole chickens and turkeys are pretty dang easy to prepare. To roast a chicken or turkey, first defrost then wash inside and out with cold running water. Let it drain dry in the sink. Coat the outside of the dry bird with a light application of olive oil. Apply spices: dry spice will now adhere nicely to the greased skin surface. Throw some spices or herbs into the bird cavity. All great chefs say to salt and pepper the skin of the bird and inside the cavity. Set the bird on a wire rack inside a pan or cookie sheet and roast covered in an aluminum foil tent (you make it) at 375-degrees for 45-minutes. Uncover and continue cooking until internal temperature (probe inserted at the deepest part of the thigh) reaches 170-degree.
I use a $10 kitchen thermometer that has a long metal braid rope connected to a probe. The digital readout stays outside the oven while the wire braid allows the probe to be read without having to open the oven door or lifting the Weber lid. Sink the probe into the thickest part of the thigh. The oven is closed yet I can read the bird temperature. No more guesswork. I pull the bird out when the magic 170 is reached and let it set for a full ten minutes. Perfect every time.
Note: no basting or stuffing!
This is the Purposefully Primitive ultra-basic method and obviously there are countless variations on this theme. Get this down first and then improvise to your culinary hearts content. And yes I eat the crisp skin. If I am hard dieting, I eschew skin. I usually roast two moderately sized chickens at a time, one for the family dinner and the other for great eating during the week. So thats how to roast a bird what in the hell could be easier? Line the pan with tin foil and you wont have to clean the pan. You make the cover, the tent over the bird, out of tin foil. Do you have a Weber Grill? If you live in a house you shouldif used correctly the Weber becomes a veritable culinary sword of Excalibur. I like to roast a turkey over smoky hickory or mesquite wood chips.
I might throw a link of homemade apple sausage onto the grill. This custom-blend sausage is made by local farmers and when smoked over hickory will about make you faint. Sometimes Ill place the sausage link into the cavity of the bird to add a layer of apple/pork flavormarinating the interior while pushing outward towards the wood-smoked exterior. The fowl preparation is identical to that used on the oven-roasted bird, thaw, clean, dry, oil and season. I have a $5 charcoal starter I bought at Home Depot. Place the charcoal in the starter, set the starter into the Weber resting on the bottom grate. Lightly soak newspaper or paper towels in vegetable oil. (Yep) Place the balled up oiled paper underneath the charcoal starter and light it. Go away and prep the bird. In 10 to 15 minutes the coals will be white. Distribute them into two semi-circle piles at either side of the grill.
I use a big old steel garden rake and reach in there and divide the coals in half, pulling and pushing them to opposite sides of the grill. Place an aluminum pan between the piles. I big chucks of hickory, mesquite, apple or peach wood to the flame; water-soaked wood chips can also be laid directly on top of the coals. Place the main grate over top of the coals and place the bird overtop the drip pan. Insert the meat probe into the thickest part of the thigh. Replace the lid and open the all the vents all the way. The braided thermometer wire sneaks out under the lid, hooked to its digital readout. Mine allows me to set a buzzer that goes off at a pre-set temperature: I set the buzzer to 170-degrees and go do some yard work or hit the garage gym for a few sets of power cleans. When the buzzer goes off the bird is done.
Open the lid, pull the probe, remove the bird and let it sit for 10-full minutes. Killer eats! You can thank me (profusely) laterits crazy, all this bird cooking is so simple and logical and primitive but this type of cooking slaughters your eating audience. Theyll think youre a neighborhood Wolfgang Puck! Bam! PS: be aware that the fragrant wood smoke and roast bird smell alert all carnivores in the immediate area that something stupendous is brewing and youll be amazed how many unexpected drop-in neighbors show up carrying six imported beers and going, Hey! I was just washing my car and I had an uncontrollable urge to see how you were doing? Whats up?
Tags:Popularity: 2% [?]
Related Posts:
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
