Roasted chicken: rack required?

[EricT]

Hi folks. What are your thoughts on using a rack for roasted chicken? Does it make a very big difference? The reason I ask is that I do not have a nice roasting pan yet, so I was thinking of roasting a chicken in my big frypan so that I can make a sauce or gravy afterwards. In the past I used a cooling rack/baking sheet, which worked OK for roasting, but I can't really use the baking sheet on the stovetop.

BTW, if anyone has a good recipe for a white wine sauce to make from the fond, I would appreciate it!

[Pastry Maven]

Hi EricT,
You can use some rough-chopped veggies, such as carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, etc, in the bottom of the pan...raises the chicken off the bottom, and lends nice flavor to the chicken and drippings...

Can't help with the white wine sauce recipe...sorry.

Let us know how it turns out...

Cheers,

Micki

[Suzanne]

A variation on what Pastry Maven suggested using only celery and carrot is to not chop the vegetables, but leave them in long pieces and sort of stack them crosswise (like a log cabin) as a base for the chicken.

Also: if you butterfly the chicken before roasting, you can lay if flat in the roasting pan without a rack (skin side up). This has the advantage of allowing the chicken to cook faster and more evenly.

[AprilB]

It works if you don't need an overall crispy skin (just the top) or want to roast it upside (breast side) down, which makes the breast meat more juicy.

In any event, I would routinely pour off the drippings from the roasting pan so that most of the chicken is in dry heat.

Then you can reduce the drippings to either fat (by letting all of the water boil off) or leaving some of the juice for a gravy or sauce.

April

[Pinot]

I don't think there is any problem with roasting staright onto the pan, but as mentioned you can do great things with carrots and other veggies to raise your bird. I like using leeks for this job as well.

Racks are ok too , but god they are hard to clean.

I am also well and truly converted to the cook in 3 equal time periods method - on one side , then the other , then finally breast up .

I usually just deglaze the pan with wine or verjuice , add the herbs and the lemon from the carcas and the juices from carving . Strain , season and reduce to your liking.