Hi everyone! Continuing with our January series on Celebrity Home Chefs, I present you with Victor Lombardi, a dad of two, originally from Piscataway, NJ. He is Vice President of Product Development at Jesta Digital and is going to share an easy dinner entree with us.
He says this is a beautiful, juicy, crispy roast chicken that costs $8, feeds four people, and only requires about 10 minutes of prep time. It’s a combination of clever techniques from Cook’s Illustrated, Mark Bittman, Michael Ruhlman, and Alton Brown. The brining and trussing keeps the meat moist, the cast iron pan helps the dark and white meat cook evenly, and the soy sauce makes the skin crispy. Enjoy!
Victor’s Fast Roast Chicken:
You’ll need:
A 4-pound chicken
A cast iron pan
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup table salt
1 bunch of rosemary
1/4 cup soy sauce
The day before your meal you brine your bird:
2. Wash the chicken.
3. Put it in a pot with enough water to cover it, about four quarts.
4. In a food processor, grind into a powder 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of table salt.
5. Pour the sugar and salt into the pot. Stir in the pot a little to get it all nice and mixed up.
6. Cover the pot in put it in the fridge.
The next day, an hour before meal time:
7. Put your cast iron pan in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
8. Take the chicken out of the pot, rinse it, and trim any excess fat.
9. Put the rosemary in the cavity of the bird.
10. Truss the chicken (a good technique: http://ruhlman.com/2010/07/how-to-truss-a-chicken.html)
11. Open the oven and place the chicken breast side up in the pan.
12. Pour the soy sauce over the top of the chicken.
13. Bake for 40 minutes.
14. Take the chicken out and let it sit for 10 minutes.
15. Mangia.
3 Responses
It looks like I mistakenly left out step 1, which is "Give thanks to the chicken."
Can we use Veniger instead of Soy sauce ,so that its flavor gets enhanced.I'm gonna try this tomorrow!
I've never tried vinegar, but I've seen recipes that combine vinegar, garlic and rosemary as a sauce. Go for it!
There's many different ways to flavor the bird (next I want to try crushed garlic, butter, and thyme inserted under the skin), and the beauty is you can put the sauce/spices on at the beginning and you don't have to worry about basting since the cook time is so short and the meat already so moist.