One hour tasty chicken.

Well, maybe 1:15.

I am happy with an easy chicken recipe that I can toss together after work and please the kids.

  1. One or two chickens. Take out the guts.

  2. A light coat of olive oil.

  3. Cracked salt.

  4. Dry rub of choice. Herbs d’Provence, Indian spice powders (those instant ones in the foil bags work great,) ginger/sumac/limon…whatever you have in the spice pantry!

  5. Old fashioned round Weber kettle.

  6. A small rack and a brownie pan (that will be sacrificed to the chicken gods and not used for brownies any more.)

  7. An almost random amount of charcoal in your Weber - enough to make a one briquette deep layer, or so.

  8. Light 'em up, wait 'til they are ready.

  9. Place chickens on rack on pan and place that on your grill rack.

  10. Put lid loosely on BBQ.

  11. Wait one hour.

No need to check the bird meat temp, it will be just right.

Meat is guaranteed moist.

As close to a "can’t lose’ recipe as I can think of…

Truss those birds next time.

Nice looking birds!

Beyond the presentation, does trussing offer any other advantages?

Sure. Keeps the mass of the bird centered and tight. Those legs flapping around get beat up.

Trussing provides better uniformity of cooking temperature and hence doneness.

Thanks for the replies. I rarely make whole chicken, so was not aware of the advantages.

I rarely make whole chicken

WTF? Likely one of the best meals any home cook can do if they do it correctly. So so good and so wine friendly.

I can’t sew. I just do a poor man’s truss, putting a hole in the extra skin around the cavity and putting the drumstick handles through to tighten it up. Well worth it.
Rarely make whole chicken? Where do you get chicken stock bones? Don’t EVEN say you rarely make stock!

Actually trussing a chicken may be detrimental.The breast and legs cook in different times.Leaving the legs untrussed allows them to cook evenly.

I will occasionally buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco and then I will use the bones to make stock. I really like their rotisserie birds, so much so that I don’t feel the need to cook whole chicken at home.

+1 and I make a great roasted chicken but now it is just easier to buy at Costco, very tender. I do annd herbs and broil for a while before serving.

SF Chronicle did a taste test of rotisserie birds done by different places here in the bay area a few years ago. Costco came out on top. Whole Paycheck uses Marys but they massacre the darn things turning the meat texture into sawdust they are so over done. Sad.