I was looking through some old posts on The Good Egg blog a few days ago and I read something that tweaked my interest. It was a post written after I had spent a weekend with my friend Elaine in Newfoundland. I wrote about how she had roasted a chicken for 3 hours and how good it was. Then that reminded me of the books she had put me onto while I was there - Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, both wonderful little books that I have recommended to tons of people. In one of those books, Laurie Colwin talks about how she roasts a chicken - for at least three hours on a temperature of 250-300F. The catch is that she would baste the chicken "constantly" during those three hours.
Basting a chicken is no big deal - if you are indeed home to do it. I realized my biggest stumbling block would be remembering. So, I set the timer for for every 10 to 15 minutes and last night we had one of the tastiest birds I've ever made.
There is one other part of this story. Laurie Colwin suggested sprinkling the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika. But I wanted to try a recipe from one of my scrapbooks. Melt 1/2 cup butter and combine that with 1/2 cup soy sauce. Just those two ingredients created something very close to magic. I also stuffed the chicken cavity with a bunch of fresh thyme (well, not so fresh anymore) and 4 or 5 garlic cloves. After the three hour wait on the chicken, we were rewarded with a falling-off-the-bone, juicy-beyond-belief, taste sensation. It was an epic chicken dinner.
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