[William Middleton]

I'm following a recipe on you tube to cook a whole chicken for a dinner. It says i should allow the chicken to cool after cooking it and then broil to reheat it to make the chicken nice and succulent. However, my oven does not have a broiler installed into it but it does have a grill so i can produce heat from above when necessary. Has anyone got any ideas other than trying to grill a whole chicken without the ability to control the temperature accurately.

All responses will be great as I really want to impress my family with this amazing recipe.

Thank you all.

Will

 

[chefbuba]

I assume that you are in the U.K.? In the us a broiler is an overhead heating element in an oven, weather gas or electric. Cooks at about 550f
In a restaurant kitchen, a broiler is something that steaks are cooked on, over grates, such as a charcoal or gas broiler.
You guys call it a grill.
It's all confusing.

 

[sgmchef]

Hello William,

Look up Spatchcock. Maybe that is better suited to your equipment.

The problem from my view is you trying to follow a chicken recipe vs cooking chicken.

Intentionally reheating a whole roasted chicken is an interesting concept. I would not normally use that technique unless I absolutely had to, due to oven space for LARGE group feeding. (100s of people) Once the Chicken is fully cooked and cooled, reheating will remove moisture. That is what water does when heated, it evaporates. Can't really avoid the science of it...

What makes you think the recipe is amazing? The herbs and/or spices called for in the recipe?

The absolute most important thing about any chicken dish is to not undercook or overcook the chicken. You must first learn how to cook a Chicken. Whole, half, and quartered Chicken cookery each have different cooking times and temperatures.

Rubbing the Chicken with Jamaican Jerk seasoning, or Thai Curry paste, or just some Lemon, Garlic and fresh Herbs will absolutely impact the finished flavor of the dish but, has very little impact on how long to cook the Chicken. Do you think that rubbing 20 cloves of crushed garlic on a whole chicken increases the cooking time by even five minutes? It doesn't... Seasoning is subordinate to the amount of time needed to properly cook "that size" piece of chicken, whatever "that size" is.

If you want to impress the family today, make Coq au Vin or a stewed version of Chicken. Work on learning proper roasting technique and then you can go wild on how to flavor it!

Good luck!

 

[french fries]

To me reheated chicken develops a 'new' taste that isn't present normally in chicken, that I don't care for. I don't see the point of purposely letting the chicken cool down to reheat it.

 

[William Middleton]

Thank you for all the comments guys, I have been scratching my head with this recipe for weeks now. Here is the link for the recipe (It's a you tube video).

chefbubba: I thought grilling would simply make the skin of the chicken crispy, not reheat the entire chicken?

sgm chef: Your comments are very educating, I shall make a make note of some of the points you've made and I will definitely attempt a coq au vin!

21TonyK: The chef in the video says he does this to make the chicken more succulent, otherwise the end result will be dry.

Will

 

[halb]

I think you have to have more posts to be able to post a video or links.

 

[William Middleton]

Perfect Roast chicken with easy trussing
Author: CookinginRussia
Posted: 3 years ago

 

[french fries]

chefbubba: I thought grilling would simply make the skin of the chicken crispy, not reheat the entire chicken?

So is the plan to eat cold chicken with crispy skin?

The chef in the video says he does this to make the chicken more succulent, otherwise the end result will be dry.

It's the opposite. While your chicken rests, some water will evaporate (you can actually see it). When you later reheat, more water will evaporate. You'll end up with a drier chicken.

Or maybe the chef was just talking about letting the chicken rest for a little bit, say 15mn, then crisp up the skin? In that case the chicken doesn't have the time to cool down really...

 

[William Middleton]

I’m not sure what the chefs plan was. I thought he was allowing it to cool and then broiling it to reheat it but I think you’re right about the fact that he’s only allowing it to cool for like 15 minutes and then grilling it to make the skin crispy.

 

[french fries]

I watched the video... I think that's what it is. He says "cool down" but I think he just means rest a little so that the juices stabilize, before cutting it down.

 

[french fries]

 

[halb]

Looks to me like it's a way to pre-cook it so that it can be held and prepared quicker for service. That seems to be where his experience is. Can't see how it adds anything. You wouldn't want to let it cool then re-heat unless you had to.

 

[William Middleton]

It has been a while since I posted this thread in the forum but I couldnt help but once again thank everyone who replied. All advice has been noted and all comments have been very educational for me. Thank you.

Will