Recipe(tried): Juicy Roast Chicken ....mmmmmmm

Just wanted to share with you the best Roasted Chicken my family has ever tasted!! I saw this lady, Shirley Corriher, on a cooking show called something like Home Cooking with Amy Coleman...She made chicken and biscuits in a way that really intrigued me so I searched the web for her recipes and found them!! My whole family was absolutely thrilled with the results!! It was truly the juiciest and beautifully browned roasted chicken!! I didn't have some of the ingredients she called for and didn't have time to run to the store so mine had alot less ingredients but boy if it missed any flavor I can only imagine how tasty her recipe is!! I will include what I did after her recipe in case you want to try...
I served it with good old mashed potatoes...white corn cut from the cob and seasoned...salad..and her buttermilk biscuits...and yes I made a yummy Apple Pie for dessert!! It was well worth the effort and fuss!!

Juicy Roast Chicken

Recipe By Shirley O. CorriherMakes 6 Servings

This recipe is a combination of my brining, food science writer Harold McGee's roasting technique, and my herbs and basting mixture. I gave this recipe out on a radio talk show, and listeners called in to report that they had never had such good chicken.

What This Recipe Shows:

Absorbing water while soaking in the brine makes chicken meat juicier.

Basting the chicken with a corn syrup and butter mixture adds sugar and protein for good browning.

1 6-pound roasting hen
1 cup salt
2 onions (total), quartered
3 leaf ends of celery stalks (total)
10 sage leaves (total)
10 sprigs fresh thyme (total)
1 quart and 1/4 cup cold water (4-1/2 cups total)
1 small orange, quartered
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons dark corn syrup
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
Remove the neck and giblet package from the chicken and pull off the flap of fat if there is one. Rub hen inside and out with salt. Place the chicken in a pot that is just large enough to hold it and tall enough to completely cover it with water. Add ice water just to cover the chicken and stir briefly. Place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Remove the bird and rinse for several minutes under cold running water to remove all salt inside and out.

While the chicken is in the refrigerator, make a simple stock by simmering the neck, giblets (no liver), 1 onion quartered, 1 leaf end of celery, 2 sage leaves, 2 thyme sprigs, and 1 quart water in a large saucepan over low heat for 1 to 2 hours. Strain and save the stock. Pull the meat from neck and add to the stock. Cut up the giblets and add to the stock.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Arrange a V-rack for holding the bird over a pan to catch juices. Pour 1-1/2 cups of the stock into the pan, reserve the rest. Place the remaining onion, leaf ends of celery, sage leaves, and thyme sprigs, plus the orange and bay leaf, in the chicken cavity.

In a small bowl, stir together corn syrup and butter. Brush the chicken lightly with this mixture and place in a V-rack, breast side down. Roast 20 minutes, basting with drippings in pan every 7 minutes. Remove the chicken from oven and turn so that one leg and thigh are up. Baste with the butter mixture and return to the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven again, turn completely over so that the other leg is up, baste well with the butter mixture, and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven again and turn the oven down to 325 degrees. Leave the oven door partially open so oven temperature will come down quickly. Turn the bird breast side up, brush well with butter mixture and return to the oven. Baste every 5 minutes. In 5 minutes, check breast meat temperature using an instant-read thermometer. The ideal temperature to remove it is 150 to 154 degrees. If necessary, place back in oven an additional 5 to 10 minutes until it reaches this temperature. Breast meat temperature rises about 2 degrees every minute in the oven at this temperature.

Add as much of the pan drippings to the remaining stock as you can without getting the sauce too salty. Stir cornstarch into 1/4 cup cold water and stir it into the stock-drippings mixture in a large saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.

Allow chicken to stand at least 15 minutes after removing from the oven. Carve or partially carve the chicken and arrange back in bird form on the serving platter. Pass hot gravy in a separate bowl.

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BB's.... I used already made chicken stock and added 2 cups in the roasting pan with the chicken instead of 1 1/2 cups...Didn't have the sage/thyme and didn't use the orange...I stuffed wedges of 1 large onion in the cavity of the chicken... I chopped up about 1/2 of another large onion and finely diced up a large carrot and threw it in the stock that was cooking with the chicken...I lightly seasoned the chicken with my favorite seasoning salt (Johnny's chef-blended containing crystalline salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, and spices) and pepper (I seasoned the side that was up when I first put it in and then on the top when the chicken was put upright for it's final stage of roasting)... I was able to just take the roasting pan full of juices and stock (being careful to remove as much fat as possible) when the chicken was done and make a wonderfully tasty gravy by adding 1/2 cup flour that was mixed to a paste with cold water (a good tip is before you add this type mixture to the hot liquid is to take a little of the hot liquid and mix it into your flour mixture to make it the same temperature as the hot liquid you are adding it to..this prevents lumps)... seasoned gravy to taste and yum!!!!
I did follow her soaking and roasting technique down to the last detail and used her corn-syrup/butter mixture liberally on the chicken...Make sure when you have to turn the chicken over you remove from oven and close the door so the oven loses as little heat as possible...*****************

Now these were kinda crazy sounding but make an extremely tasty and MOIST biscuit!! When you mix the dough you feel like there should be more flour because it's so moist...When you are "shaping" the biscuits don't over handle..it will feel weird like you are shaping jello!! Be gentle and have fun!!

Shirley Corriher's Baking Powder Biscuits

Serves 4 to 6

The secret of these sensationally light biscuits is the steam produced by a moist dough and baking the biscuits up against each other.

Preheat oven to 475. Set a rack in center of oven.

Blend together in a bowl:1-1/2 cups (measured by dipping cup into flour and leveling against side of bag) white lily self-rising flour, or 1 cup other brand self-rising flour and 1/2 cup granulated flour (i.E.Wondra or shake and blend), plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
Between 1/8 and 1/4 teaspoon salt
Work in with finger tips:

3 tablespoons shortening (crisco, spry, etc.)
Add and stir with a spoon until just mixed -- dough will be wet and gooey:

3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Spray 8-inch cake pan with non-stick spray. Have 1 cup non-self rising flour in a pie plate. Spray with non-stick spray a medium ice cream scoop or tablespoon. Scoop up biscuit dough and drop in flour.
Sprinkle with flour and roll in flour. Shake off excess and shape into a tall round. Place in cake pan. Continue process until all dough is used, pressing biscuits snugly next to each other. For wretched excess, you could brush bicuits with melted butter. Bake about 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. Eat hot, turning out the panful of biscuits onto a platter, and gently separating them with a paring knife.Copyright 1996 Shirley Corriher