by Paul Bressler

Roasting is an essential cooking technique to learn for professional and home cooks, and one of the first dishes that you learn to make in cooking school is roast chicken. With autumn finally here roast chicken is the perfect pairing for those lazy Sunday afternoons. Buy a big bird! Invite some friends and enjoy.

Today’s Recipe is for Roast Chicken with an Orange Glaze. I’ve learned to rely on Cooks Illustrated Magazine and their cookbooks for all of the important techniques, and this calls for two of them. First is that for a moist roast chicken, the bird really has to be brined in a salt water solution. The exception is for a kosher chicken, which is brined as part of the koshering process. Cook’s roasting technique calls for turning the bird twice. You start wing side up, turn the other wing up, and finish it with the breast up. It’s extra work, but it really pays off in a bird that doesn’t dry out. The glaze is made from orange juice, and brushed on when you make the last turn.

This recipe will pair well with a nice, juicy and fruity new world syrah. Syrah, Syrah is a dark grape the produces an equally dark wine. In the new world, it is usually relatively low in tannin, low in acidity, with black pepper to pep it up; it matches well with the sweet/sour of the Orange Glaze. If using a kosher chicken, skip the brining and begin with step 2.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup table salt or 1 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt or 3/4 cup Morton Kosher Salt
• 1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds), trimmed of excess fat, giblets removed and discarded, chicken rinsed and patted dry
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• vegetable oil for brushing v-rack

Ingredients for Glaze:

• 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (from 2-3 large oranges)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 1 lime)
• 2 tablespoons honey

Directions:

1. Place shallow roasting pan in oven and heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Brush chicken with butter and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.
3. Remove heated pan from oven and set oiled V rack in it.
4. Place chicken on rack, wing side up.
5. Make the glaze – see instructions below.
6. Roast 20 minutes, then rotate chicken, other wing side up.
7. Brush orange glaze over chicken.
8. Roast 20 minutes, then rotate chicken, breast side up. Roast until instant-read thermometer inserted in breast registers 160 and in thigh registers between 165 and 170, 10 to 15 minutes longer.
9. Transfer chicken to cutting board; let rest 20 minutes. Carve and serve.

Glaze Instructions:

1. Bring all ingredients to boil in small saucepan.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until slightly thickened and reduced to scant 1/4 cup, 25 to 30 minutes.
3. Set glaze aside until ready to use.

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