Roast Chicken Grande y Gordita

Here's the second recipe I tried from Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison's The Border Cookbook. I picked this because it looked relatively easy -- roast a big and fat chicken!

5-lb whole chicken

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tbsp butter

black pepper, fresh ground, to taste

1 small orange, quartered

1/2 medium onion, chunked

1 garlic head, separated into cloves but unpeeled

1 c chicken stock

1/2 c orange juice

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease rack of a small roasting pan.

Loosen chicken skin, taking care not to tear it. Massage oil into the flesh and inside the cavity. Rub butter over the skin. Salt and pepper generously inside and out.


Fill the cavity with the orange, onion and half of garlic head.

In a small bowl, mix the stock with juices and cinnamon.

Place the chicken on the rack in a roasting pan, breast up, and roast for 15 minutes.

Turn chicken over, add remaining garlic cloves to the pan, and baste the chicken with a little of the stock mixture. Reduce heat to 350°F.


Cook another 15 minutes, then turn bird on it's side and baste again.


Cook another 15 minutes, then turn bird onto it's other side and baste again.


Turn chicken breast-side up and baste with pan juices as well as stock.

Cook until chicken temperature is 165°F.

Remove chicken from oven. Spoon out the orange, onion and garlic from the cavity. Discard orange. Add onion and garlic to roasting pan. Transfer chicken to platter, cover and let sit for 10-15 minutes.

Pour roasting pan contents into a blender or food processor and puree.

Strain the sauce, reheat if necessary, and serve with the chicken.


Ease: simple recipe, but what with all that chicken turning, it was a pain in the ass. Maybe if I had a spit this recipe as directed would be conducive. Since I don't, turning the chicken was a simple annoyance. Plus each time I pulled the chicken from the oven to turn it, I was losing oven heat which ultimately prolonged cooking time. The sauce was gross. I made it, tasted it, and skipped it.

Time: it should've take about 1.5 hours, but due to turning repeatedly, cook time dragged on for about 2.5 hours.

Cost:

• chicken: $2.80
• orange: $0.20
• staples: let's say $4

Total: $7

Will there be a next time? Sure as shit, with the exceptions: skip all that flipping during roasting and pass on making the sauce.

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