Normal is not what I do

Normal is not what happens at all around here. I never was one to follow the rule book on anything. As the ones of you who know where my canning recipes come from, and I sure don't alas follow what the USDA approves of. But if it worked last year I sure as hell believe it will this year if I am using the same method and ingredients. But this post is regarding my rotated chicken. OK its a chicken done on the rotisserie. We think rotated sounds better. First you procure a chicken, preferably one from your own freezer that you put in there. Cleaned of course. Thaw out said bird.

 

Now ya got one thawed bird waitin to be strung up. No wings, whas with that ya ask? Well we don't care much for roast chicken wings but like them better fried or BBQ'd. So when I butcher I take off the wings from the birds bound for the rotator. Now in what ever fashion works for you, it varies for me every time I do this, tie the legs together and bind the bird so he will stay on the spit.

Now when he is all tied up and has a spit runnin from his woohoo to his neck opening, hes ready to butter up. First pat him dry with paper towel, make sure the skin is dry of water.

Then ya take a glob, I say glob because how much butter ya use depends on how big the bird. Use enough to coat him well with butter.  See, no wings to waste or have to tie down.

Here is where ya sprinkle ya bird with your seasoning of choice, mine was creole seasoning. When ya do this, sprinkle the inside of the bird really well too as this flavor will seep into the meat as the bird rotates.

Now put the strung up buttered sprinkled chicken in the oven at about 400 degrees for the first 30 minutes or so, then take the temp to 350 till he registers 160 in the thickest part of the breast. I use one of those fancy digital instant read thermometers. Those things are well worth the money and every kitchen should have one. For safety reasons when roasting. In my toaster oven rotator the chicken takes about 2 hours. This is a 5 1/2 lb bird. Check his temp about an hour and a half in, depending on the size as to not over cook em. This lil toaster oven with the rotisserie cost about $70 and the best money I ever spent. It also does convection bake, toast and broil. Neat thing to have. Any way, when ya bird is done take em out and let him rest for a bit, hes hada rough day. This allows the juice to settle and not run out when ya slice em up. So good, nice brown skin, moist and tender. I woulda took a picture but damn I had a mouse trap moment. Maybe next time. I do have 19 more like this in the freezer. And in that same freezer I had cornbread dressing that I fixed, along with mashed taters, gravy, corn, baked beans and coleslaw. All stuff that we raised and I had canned. Even the baked beans were home canned. Made for a nice hot meal on a cold winter day. Hey the sun was out for a bit and it was prolly 40, the sun hid and now its back to 16 degrees. AND we are forecast for more snow. Who keeps messing with the thermostat out there?

So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella