Roasting chicken in a roasting bag results in a succulent meal.
Oven roasting bags help lock in flavor and moisture when roasting chicken, resulting in tender, flavorful chicken. While it may be initially intimidating to use a roasting bag, and you might worry about such flimsy-looking plastic melting and ruining your meal, you can rest assured that roasting bags are safe, heat-resistant and easy to use. Roasting bags act as a baster, preventing you from doing the hard work of monitoring your roasting bird constantly to prevent it from drying out. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Rub the chicken with butter or olive oil.
2. Apply the herbs, salt and pepper, making sure all surface areas are covered. Good herbs to use are rosemary, thyme, sage or basil.
3. Place the seasoned bird in the roasting bag. At this point you can add vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and pearl onions to the bag to roast with the chicken.
4. Seal the bag with the tie and place it in the roasting pan.
5. Place the roasting pan in the oven and set the timer. You should estimate about 9 minutes per pound of chicken, so for a 5-lb. bird, you should set the timer for 45 minutes.
6. Check with a meat thermometer when the timer goes off. Place the thermometer in the meaty part of the thigh, making sure the thermometer doesn't touch the bone. The temperature should reach 180 F before you remove the chicken from the oven. Reset the timer as required and monitor the temperature until done.
7. Open the bag, remove the chicken, carve the meat and serve.
Tags: making sure, remove chicken, roasting bags