A couple years ago, I started a food journal—when I wanted to try a new recipe, I would write down the process I followed, and rate myself based on the results, with a little bit of added humor. I haven’t done this in a while, but I thought I’d post some of them. Here is my first entry.
08/11/2022———-Today I tried Melissa Clark’s Roast Chicken recipe for the first time in my new oven. The chicken is roasted in a cast-iron skillet, which makes for both an easy clean-up and an aesthetic appearance when taking it out. Essentially, you dry-rub the chicken, preheat the skillet in the oven to 500˚F, then sort of half-spatchcock the chicken in the pan (it doesn’t really want to fit otherwise) and roast until the chicken is done.
I’ve done this recipe a few times before, always with different seasoning. I have tried coating the chicken with a honey vinaigrette right before putting it in the oven, and I would recommend. This time, I wanted to keep it simple. My dry rub was salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and a barbecue rub, with an extra dash of paprika added.
I roasted vegetables alongside the chicken—carrots, portobello slices, celery, onion, and garlic for the chicken broth, and broccoli florets and halved baby-bella mushrooms to go with the meal (all seasoned and tossed with olive oil). I added sliced carrot around the chicken as it was cooking, to roast in the broth. After twenty minutes, I turned the oven down to 425˚F and cooked for another hour, basting the chicken every 10-15 minutes. At the last minute, I decided to make biscuits instead of having it with leftover rice as I had planned, so these went in as I took out and carved the chicken.
Verdict:
Taste: 14/17. I oversalted the vegetables a tad; otherwise it was delicious. The chicken juices were sweet and salty, the mushrooms popped with umami, and nothing has ever tasted better than the crispy top-layer of chicken skin. I made sure to snag an extra bite as I was stripping the carcass.
Doneness: 11/17. The biscuits (a box mix) were a tad dry; I don’t know if this was due to the mix or my leaving them in a minute too long. As the chicken was roasting, I realized I didn’t have a meat thermometer, so I had to carve it open to check doneness. The dark meat was cooked to perfection, but the breast on the side I cut open was a touch dry as a result. In addition, I added the carrots to the chicken juices too late, and they were a little crunchy.
Satisfaction: 15/17. I’ve made this recipe better before, but overall I was quite satisfied. The best parts of the meal definitely overshadowed the rest. For dessert (a bit later; I was quite full after one plate of everything), I had cherries. Nothing fancy, just some rinsed cherries in a bowl, and they were delicious.
Time from start to eating: 2 hrs.