This fabulously delicious Roasted Chicken recipe was great, simple, moist, and ready right on time... the whole family loved it so it gets made often.
Ingredients
For the brine
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 quarts vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
2 quarts heavily iced water
For the aromatics
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
1 Tablespoon sage
Olive oil
DIRECTIONS
2 to 3 days before roasting:
Begin thawing the chicken in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil.
Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.
Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:
Combine the brine, water and ice in the 2 gallon stockpot.
Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine.
If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water.
Discard the brine.
Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.
Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage.
Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
Roast the chicken on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 4 to 8 pound bird should require a total of 1 to 1 1/2 hours of roasting.
Let the chicken rest, loosely covered with foil for 15 minutes before carving.
