Julia Child's Roast Chicken

This recipe was definitely tastier than the previous one I tried, but it alsorequires a much higher level of concentration, which is a commodity in short supply when you have a ten-month old child. But fortunately for me, I imported a slave for this event. My friend Jan Smelk expressed interest in spending her day off toiling in my kitchen, and I am not one to say no to an offer of someone doing work for my benefit. Even the bottle of wine I opened to keep her on task was one she had brought over on a previous visit, so this worked out great for me. We started under the guise of working together, but Baby J and I conspired that he would start to fuss, or get into something dangerous whenever there was actually work to be done. So basically I stood around holding the baby and chatting, while Jan made the chicken.

This was probably for the best, because I found Ms. Childs' recipe unbelievably confusing. We eventually made our way through it, or Jan did at any rate, and we have tried to outline it here in language that is more clear. If you are more mentally capable than me, you might be able to go straight to "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" but otherwise, here is what we did.

Roast Chicken
1 3-5 pound chicken
1 medium carrot
1 small onion
oil
salt
butter, butter, butter

Preheat the oven to 425ºF
Slice a carrot and an onion and place in bottom of roasting pan.
Rinse the chicken. Pat dry with paper towels.
Coat the cavity of the chicken with salt and butter.
Place the chicken on the roasting rack in the pan and rub with butter all over.
Truss the chicken. (See guest post from Jan Smelk on this.)
In a separate bowl combine 1 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp melted butter for basting.
Place roasting pan in oven with chicken breast side up for 5 minutes.
Then, turn chicken onto it's left side and brown for 5 minutes.
Then, turn chicken onto it's right side and brown for 5 minutes.
At each turn baste the chicken with oil and butter mixture.
Keeping the chicken on it's right side, turn oven down to 350ºF.
Add a pinch of salt.
Baste every ten minutes.
After thirty minutes at 350ºF, turn the chicken to the left side.
Add a pinch of salt.
Continue basting every eight minutes. (When you run out of oil/butter mix you can use the juices in the pan to baste)
After 16 minutes, turn the chicken to breast side up for the rest of the hour.
Add a pinch of salt.

Check the temperature of the chicken with an instant read meat thermometer. It should be 180º-190º depending on how well done you like your chicken. (We forgot to do this.)

If you are like Jan, and like a crispy skin, turn the heat back up to 425º and cook until it looks good. (In our case about 15 minutes keeping in mind that everything I cook takes twice as long as it says.) Julia Childs encourages "rapid basting" which stressed us out considerably. I'm sure we would have bitterly disappointed her with the rate of our basting, and that might account for the fact that our chicken was a little under done even with the additional time. However, our chicken was still chickeny deliciousness.

Once out of the oven, the chicken needs to rest for 5-10 minutes so the juices can reabsorb into the flesh. This is the perfect time to make a sauce.

Sauce
Put the roasting pan that has the cooked carrot and onion in chicken drippings on the stovetop, adding a chopped shallot and a cup of chicken stock. Scrape up all the goodness in the pan and heat until liquid reduces to a half a cup. Strain and add a tablespoon of butter. This is your chicken gravy. You can also use this over a baked potato.

Chicken Stock
We made the chicken stock used in the sauce in between bastings of the chicken.
Brown the gizzard, neck and organs in a sauce pan with oil, a carrot and an onion. After a few minutes, add two cups of chicken broth, or stock if you have it and enough water to cover everything by a half inch. Add a pinch of thyme and a bay leaf. Let simmer for an hour and a half.