Thanksgiving Chicken

Rosemary & Garlic Roast Chicken:

• I brined the chicken.
• — and to the regular salt/sugar brine, I added the left over liquid from some braised pork that I made the day before.  Because: why not?

The Rub

• In my coffee grinder, I blended:
• Several springs worth of fresh rosemary leaves.
• A small handful of black pepper corns — I don’t know, maybe 20-30.
• A hearty shaking of paprika from a tin with the spout opened at the “pour” setting.  Enough to give the rub a reddish color.
• Cumin seed.
• Then:
• In a bowl, I mixed the blended spices with:
• About 4 cloves of pulverized garlic.
• Kosher salt.

Assembly:

• I removed the chicken from the brine and dried the skin thoroughly.
• Then, I rubbed my rub under the skin on every part of the chicken that I could get under the skin of (which is almost the whole bird).  I rubbed what was left of the seasoning on the outside of the skin.
• Then, I stuffed the inside of the bird with:
• 2 quarters of a white onion.
• 2 halves of a peeled mandarin orange.
• A few sprigs of rosemary.
• Several whole, peeled cloves of garlic.
• Finally, I rubbed the entire outside of the chicken with bacon grease.

Baking

• I fashioned a baking rack from two stovetop burner grates, covered with aluminum foil.
• Those, of course, went into a baking pan.
• I sealed off each end of the bird by suturing it with toothpicks.
• I also tied the drumstick ends together — although, I’m not sure what good that does and probably won’t do it again.
• I put the bird, breast up, into a preheated 425ºF oven.
• I roasted it for about 20 minutes, until the skin was golden brown.
• Then, I turned the oven down to 350ºF.
• I used a brush to baste the chicken, not to keep it moist mind you, but to get some more grease up onto the skin to help it become crispy.
• I flipped the bird breast down.
• I brushed some grease/juices onto the newly upward facing side.
• The bird continued to roast at the lower temperature for between a half hour or 40 minutes.
• After that, I flipped the bird back to it’s original position.
• Of course, I basted again just before and just after the flip.
• I continued roasting the chicken, basting one more time, until the internal temperature hit 160ºF.

Thoughts: OK, sure, there’s nothing about this recipe that is specifically related to Thanksgiving.  It’s what I made for the holiday though.  And, it was a tasty bird, that I’ll say.  For all the rosemary and garlic I used, the flavor was still pretty subtle.  It’s pretty hard to get flavors to roast themselves into the meat.  Similarly, you really wouldn’t know from tasting that there were any pork products involved.  You could just rub the skin with vegetable oil to help it crisp.  But, I think the bacon grease does add a note of something or another.  Likewise, with the orange inside — all you really need is some slow-release moisture.  A wet sponge would probably work just as well.  Only, if you use one, you probably shouldn’t ever tell anyone.