I usually don’t do recipes that require special equipment or fussy ingredients. Not usually…
But this time, it has to be done. It’s worth it though! It’s hard enough in the summer heat to even think about cooking, much less do it. It’s easier to resort to picking up something on the way home. Besides, who wants to fire up the oven, heat up the house more, and increase the electricity bill? It seems like we spend enough on A/C to fund a small country in the summer months…
That’s one reason why I love my grill. Aside from loving the way grilled foods taste, I like the grease and smoke and mess are outside and when I’m done, the house is still cool and smells like whatever I put in the diffuser. Besides, isn’t all food better with chargrill marks?
I started cooking whole chickens on the grill years ago. I’d cut out the backbone with kitchen shears, cover the whole thing with oil and a spice rub recipe I’d found in a magazine, and lay this butterflied masterpiece on the grates. It was fabulous!
But it takes too long. There’s a lot of prep work in cutting up raw meat, not to mention the very careful clean up that needs to happen before any other food can be prepared. So I started roasting my chickens in the oven in my other favorite piece of cookware…
Enter the cast iron skillet! (Actually, I have three I use regularly.) This workhorse is worth the extra TLC you have to put into it. It can tolerate super high heat, retains the heat well in the iron while cooking, and with correct care will develop a nonstick surface that doesn’t come from chemicals. It will also add a little iron supplement to your food, good news if you’re a little anemic. (Sidebar: I don’t like nonstick pans. Some of the chemicals used to produce these coatings may be liked to cancer and are known to cause flu-like symptoms when used at high heat, due to the fumes produced when the pans are overheated. I’d just as soon avoid them, but if you use them, use only on low to medium heat, don’t overheat or heat a “dry” pan, and consider replacing a scratched pan.)
Cast iron skillets have to be “seasoned” (or you can buy them pre-seasoned). You cook foods in them that contain a lot of oil at high heat and this helps create (or improve) the nonstick coating. Because of the seasoning, cleaning the pans is done with hot water and a scraper. Soap will remove some of the seasoning and add a lovely soapy taste to your next meal. You also need to oil the pan after cleaning to keep that coating up. It’s a little extra work, but I love my skillets! One or two of my kids will probably get one in my will – not sure who it’ll be though…
How to choose…
Anyway, the chicken! This summer, I got tired of heating up the house with the oven, but the kids wanted a whole roast chicken and homemade gravy from the pan juices, so I decided that I could do the chicken on the grill in the cast iron skillet. The grill would get super hot (good for crispy skin), the skillet would roast the bottom of the chicken while the top browned, the drippings would be there for the gravy, and the house would be cool. Win-win!
This is an easy one. Put your whole chicken in a pie plate and make sure the giblets are removed. Oil and season the whole bird (underneath too!). I used palm oil and ghee (because it was on the counter). I’ve also been buying spice blends recently, so I used salt, berbere and apple pie spice (together they have a Middle East kind of feel). Tie the legs together with some kitchen string if you have it – it’ll help the legs not overcook (I left this out this time as you can see in the pictures). Put your meat thermometer in the breast meat. Then put the skillet in a covered grill on high heat for 20 minutes. When the pan is hot, put the whole chicken in the pan with the thermometer facing you and the breast meat up. Close the lid and walk away.
Check back in about 30 minutes (keep an eye on the grill just in case). It won’t be ready, but you can see the skin browning. You want to cook the bird until the breast meat is 160-165 degrees (around an hour). I used this time to make a broccoli slaw and cut up veggies to grill. I did sweet peppers, onions, and a jalapeno.
Drizzle oil on the cut up veggies and season (I used a grill seasoning and salt).
When the chicken’s getting close to done, you can add the veggies to the grill. Aren’t those grill marks pretty?
Carefully! bring the pan inside and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before carving. You’ll see the temperature come up to about 170. The juices will be clear but the chicken (even the breast meat!) will be juicy and delicious. The best part is the crispy under side. If you carve it up yourself, you get to pick the crunchy parts off the bottom!
Dinner is served!
Roast chicken, sriracha broccoli slaw, grilled peppers and watermelon. Summertime goodness!
What kind of quick, cool, or easy summertime cooking tips do you use? Please share with me in the comments below!