Slow Roasted Sticky Chicken

[Zazzy]

Slow Roasted Sticky Chicken
This is my favorite way to cook a whole chicken - or any bird. To heck with those who claim slow roasting dries out the meat (you know who you are, Alton). The chicken comes out incredibly moist and flavorful and even reheats as good as it was freshly roasted. Below is the first dry rub that was adapted from a recipe by Mimi Hiller. I've found that the technique is the important part and have used a variety of spices and aromatics over the years. Slow roasting is without doubt the key.

1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 large roasting chicken, as big as you can find (about 5 pounds)
1 cup chopped onion

I'm going to suggest brining the chicken in vegetable stock for about a hour per pound prior to the dry rub. That's my addition and takes this chicken even further over the top.

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices. Remove giblets from chicken, clean the cavity well and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin. Place in a resealable plastic bag, seal and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to roast chicken, stuff cavity with onions, and place in a shallow baking pan. Roast, uncovered, at 250 degrees for 5 hours. After the first hour, baste chicken occasionally (every half hour or so) with pan juices. The pan juices will start to caramelize on the bottom of the pan and the chicken will turn golden brown. I know it's tempting to take the chicken out before the 5 hours are up. Resist that temptation. If the chicken contains a pop-up thermometer, ignore it. Let chicken rest about 10 minutes before carving.

Pan juices make incredible gravy or soup stock. Recipe works equally well with any fowl. Cornish Game Hens take about an hour to hour and a half. Turkeys take about 10 hours. Roughly an hour per pound, so if you get a 3 pound chicken, plan on 3-4 hours rather than 5.

[zippianna]

That's one heck of a great sounding recipe, Zazzy.  Thanks.  DH will love trying that I'm sure.  He's the cook at our house since he retired.

[Eve]

I don't have an oven.  Do you think I could do this in the slow-cooker?  Especially with the game hen?  I know it wouldn't brown as well, but the flavor's the thing.

[Zazzy]

I've heard of people doing it in a slow cooker.  I don't think you'll get the crispy skin but otherwise, I expect it'd work okay.  Do it and tell!

[Eve]

I tried this recipe with a Cornish game hen a few days ago.  I decided to roast it slowly in the microwave.  I cooked it for a couple hours at 20% power.  It was really good!  I used to watch a microwave cooking show every Saturday.  The host assured us that we could cook things slowly in the microwave and they would turn out pretty much the same as in a conventional oven.  The skin wasn't really crispy, but I kept covering it so I wouldn't get any splatters in the microwave.  Guess I'll have to be braver if I want crispy skin.