Wet Roast Chicken or Fun with Meat

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I have to admit, I’ve been in a decent mood over the last few days. Been day dreaming about what’s next, what new meat concoction can I toss in to my smoker? Counting the little lambs dancing in my head and thinking how wonderful the olive tapanade stuffed lamb roast was. You know, those kinds of day dreams.
Last night I found myself with a whole chicken. Everyone who loves a good roast chicken, raise your hands. Excellent. Now everyone that loves a rich and savory chicken stew, raise your hands. Teeerific. That’s about where I was last night. You see, our summer temps never rose above 78 degrees. The other night I considered turning the furnace on, it was that chilly. Keep in mind, this time last year it was 94 degrees outside.
The flavors I wanted for our dinner was a crispy, bright, roast chicken, but I also wanted that rich broth and stewed veggies that a stew comes with. I had an idea and it was bone simple.
You’ve probably already figured it out.
Preheat oven to 375, bottom rack.
Cut the back out of your chicken, lay cavity side down. Whack breast so it lays somewhat flat, doesn’t have to be real flat. In fact, it helps if it has half of its curve remaining. Olive oil it lightly and install kosher salt evenly over all. Set aside.
Get your dutch oven heated up with a bit of oil and toss in your sliced carrots (it’s gotta cook fast, so slice them about a quarter inch thick or so), celery, onion, mushrooms and smooshed whole cloves of garlic. Get all those sizzling along for maybe 10 minutes. Pour in not quite a quart of good chicken broth, you want to just more than cover your veggies. Get this to a rolling boil and let it run for 5+ minutes, good and hot. Lay in your chicken, you want the broth to just come up over the sides, no more.
Put in to oven for an hour or hour and twenty, no lid. Pull and let rest for 10 minutes.
It’s really damned cool. When you put the chicken on your carving board, the skin is all crispy and bright and salty. Yet, the meat is fall off the bone tender from sitting in liquid. THE CHICKEN WINGS ARE CRISPY !!! The breast meat was flavorful, tender and had a nice texture. The dark meat was fully cooked and juicy as always and it picked up the stew flavor from the broth & veggies!
So, here you have, “Wet Roast Chicken” and trust me, it tasted twice as good as it looks.
Biggles

23 thoughts on “Wet Roast Chicken or Fun with Meat”

  1. Is this fake photography or somethin’?
    I’ve seen chickens before, cooked ones, and none of ’em have looked like this!
    This chicken looks absolutely voluptuous!
    For real: did you actually cook it like you said and is this really the result?

  3. BB, the photo is real! That promiscuous little chicky was absolutely wonderful, too! I adore stewed meats and veggies. They are the best comfort food.

  5. Hey Pragmatic,
    Thanks and it was executed, that’s for sure.
    AND, the leftover chicken the next day? The chicken really took on a stew flavor, VERY nice.
    Biggles

  8. Hey Princess,
    NOT any chicken broth loaded with salt or might make your meal taste like campbell’s soup.
    I can’t remember which one I used, it’s usually Pacific brand. Doesn’t have to be Organic, but Natural would be nice. Something yummy.
    Biggles

  10. That is one pretty bird, Biggles! There is a ‘nip’ in the air and I’m starting to think ‘oven’!

  13. Hey Owen,
    It’s good to hear from you, hope your remodeling and guest situation went okay!
    The chicken was really good. Plus the cold chicken the next day was mighty fine, the meat really picked up a STEW flavor, very rich. Yum.
    Biggles

  14. Hey Biggles, I made this yesterday and it turned out pretty well. I deboned the chicken, just leaving leg and wing bones so it would cut into serving portions even easier afterward. By the time the meat was cooked the skin wasn’t quite crispy yet, so I turned on the broiler for about ten minutes at the end but then the meat came out a little tough and dry. I think next time I’ll start with the broiler to brown it, then turn the heat down to cook through. Still, fun technique and it went down great with a Sierra Nevada, making me wonder about subbing in beer for broth next time….

  15. Hey Rory,
    Yeah, taking the bones out accelerated your chicken cooking time and dried out the meat. You gotta leave the bones in and make sure your chicken is only barely submerged.
    The only way you could have possibly saved that one was by taking strips of bacon and applying over the breast and under the skin. This would have given you a tad more moisture and time.
    Biggles

  17. Loved this…I added potatoes and green beans…I also sauteed the veggies in garlic butter instead of olive oil…added pearl onions…and it was wonderful…my husband absolutely loved it…now I am thinking different variations like using asparagus and so on…the ideas are limitless…thank you so much…I bet Cornish Hens would be good too or split chicken breast…OK…enough for now…blessings and thanks Brenda

  18. Hey Brenda,
    Yeah! See? Turkey would be good too, either stuffed with bacon. You’re correct, the limits aren’t in place here.
    Cheers!
    Biggles

  19. Recipe came out great. We reserved the mushrooms until the end. Once the chicken is done, defat the remaining liquid, add the mushrooms, bring to a boil for a few minutes, and then thicken with about 2-3 tbsp. of flour in a slurry whisked in. Great with pasta.

  21. Well, I did throw the cut-out chicken back into the pot with the rest of the vegetables, and I drew the line at 1/2″ layer of fat sitting on top. A little is great, but that was excessive 🙂
    Just made it again, but this time pureed the veggies with an immersion blender, and then cooked the mushrooms in that. No need to thicken the sauce. It was great!

  22. Ingo,
    1/2″? Oh, gotcha, yeah.
    I did the clay chicken thing again the other night and did the same with the immersion blender. Hooboy! Talk about a wonderfully rich sauce, perfection.
    Cheers!

  23. Thank you for sharing this recipe. This is my family’s favorite way to make roast chicken. It is truly delicious.