Experimenting with Sticky Chicken

This is a repost from my other blog.
About a year ago I posted a recipe for Roasted Sticky Chicken. It is really tasty but sometimes it has been turning out rather dry, so I thought I would play with the recipe a little and do some adjusting. Last week my husband and I were grocery shopping and found 2 large roasting chickens for 69 cents a pound as a manager's special. (We always, always look for these bright orange stickers on meat for huge discounts!) They were very large, much larger than the fryers I usually buy at Aldi for 79 cents a pound. Here is the original recipe for the Sticky Chicken.

Roast Sticky Chicken

4 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 whole chicken

1 cup chopped onion

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices. Remove the giblets from the chicken, clean the cavity well, and pat dry with paper towels.

Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed. Place in a resealable plastic bag, OR, place in the roasting pan, and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to roast the chicken, stuff the cavity with the chopped onions and place in a shallow roasting pan. Roast, uncovered, at 250 degrees for 5 hours. After the first hour, baste the chicken occasionally (about every half hour or so) with the pan juices. The pan juices will start to caramelize on the bottom of the pan and the chicken will turn a golden brown. If the chicken has a pop-up thermometer, ignore it. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.

I still do everything as the recipe suggests, however, this last time I doubled the spices and prepared the 2 roasters for the next day. I put them in the refrigerator, one in my crockpot and one in a roasting pan, covered. The next day I put the chopped onion in the cavity of each chicken and started the cooking. I also added a little water to the bottom of the crock pot. I put the crock pot on low and let it slowly cook away for about 8 hours.

About 4 hours before we wanted to eat the roasted chicken, I added a little water to the bottom of the pan, covered it with foil and put it in the oven, basting every once in awhile. About halfway through the cooking time, I uncovered it and let it continue cooking.

With the addition of the water at the bottom of the pan, both methods of cooking turned out very, very well. I like the crock pot method the best, though because I didn't have to do any basting or checking, although it does take twice as long as the roasted method.

*You may want to adjust the cooking time according to the size of your chicken. These roasters were large, about 5 pounds apiece, and fryers are usually about 3 1/2 pounds. Test your chicken for doneness in the following ways: using a meat themometer; if the juices run clear; or if the leg moves easily when you wiggle it.

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