Overnight Chicken

[Mike Nolan]

I hope this recipe on the Washington Post site isn't behind their firewall, it's an interesting approach to cooking a chicken. Basically you throw it in a pot, roast it for 30-45 minutes, add a bunch of water (and possibly some aromatics), cover and let it cook at 200 degrees overnight. I will be trying this soon.

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[Joan Simpson]

Seems like a good idea,all done while you sleeping!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Really good idea! Only catch for us is there is no way my wife would allow a chicken to sit uncovered in our refrigerator, especially raw. I have watched her cook pounded-flat, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for over 45 minutes because she could still see some pink meat inside.

I've been meaning to try something I saw to quickly roast a chicken. Spatchcock it. Then heat the oven to 350. While heating the oven to 350 heat a skillet (cast iron works best) on the stove with cooking oil in the bottom.

Season the chicken the way you like it. and when the oven is ready, turn off the heat and place the chicken in the skillet then place the skillet in the oven until the internal temp reads 155 (or you can go to 165).

It supposed to start cooking the chicken from the bottom before it ever goes in the oven and the spatchcocked chicken makes the whole thing cook faster. When I try it I'll report back the results.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure what the point to air-drying the chicken for that long is, and it does appear to be optional. Personally, I think the juices in a bird are part of what makes the broth so flavorful.

My son likes to spatchcock a turkey, he says it cuts the cooking time at least in half, which means the meat is more evenly cooked.

[RiversideLen]

Spatchcock chicken and turkey is my go to way for roasting them. It eliminates the problem of the cavity and both sides can be evenly seasoned. If you like stuffing the bird, you can still spatchcock it, put the stuffing in the roasting pan and the bird on top of it.

[BakerAunt]

My husband's cousins spatchcocked a turkey for our October family reunion. The cousin who cooked it also used a LOT of butter, and I think gauze was used, perhaps it was soaked in the butter then spread over the turkey? There were so many people in the kitchen that I kept out of the way. The turkey was delicious, but I did wonder what the butter was doing to my low-saturated fat diet.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Spatchcocking turkey is HARD! I've only done it once with a 15 lb bird. Not sure I would want to try it again!

I couldn't sleep last night and watching Alton Brown he not only removed the backbone but also removed the breastbone when he spatchcocked a chicken.

When they taught me to do it we just removed the backbone. That's also how Martha Stewart does it on here website.

How do the folks here do it?

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't cooked stuffing inside a bird in years. I will stuff a goose with a mixture of apples, lemons, brandied prunes and almonds (as recommended by James Beard), and I've done that with turkey and chicken as well, but that's to flavor the meat and the juices, not to eat.

I've deboned a chicken a few times, then stuffed it, but that doesn't really count, since it cooks much faster without the bones. It's also kind of fun to be able to just cut off a slice of chicken and dressing at the table. Some years ago I made a turducken by deboning both a chicken and a duck and partially deboning a turkey, that was a lot of work, especially the duck. Duck bones are large and long.

The chef who taught the course I took on deboning a chicken said that he used to have to debone Cornish game hens, he got to the point where he could do them in about 2-3 minutes each.

[Mike Nolan]

If you don't remove the breast bone when you spatchcock a bird, you should at least crack it so the bird lays flatter.

[skeptic7]

I wouldn't like to leave the oven on overnight unattended but this seems like recipes for low temperature turkey.
I have deboned chickens and cooked the resulting chicken flat on rack without any stuffing. It is much easier to carve and cooks faster than a chicken with bones. Most of the time I cook it at 350 degrees until cooked and the skin is nice and crisp, and the fat drains off the chicken and under the rack.

My last deboned chicken was cooked for 2 hours at 250 degrees. The chicken meat was tasty and juicy but the skin was soft and fatty. For 1/4 of the breast I removed the skin entirely and then refried the skin, skin side down on a cast iron frying pan. The skin was very tasty and crisp this way and most of the fat melted off.

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