Did anyone miss me? I know it's been a while - my day job has been keeping me busy and I haven't been cooking much I'm afraid. Total slacker of late. My husband and I have managed a couple of home-cooked meals over the last few weeks but it's been difficult to manage on a regular basis between the job and kids' sports practices & games, painting projects in the house, general spring cleaning and a host of other things that are required of responsible adults. Be that as it may, we have managed one of two dinners that did not require a phone call and car ride for a pick up. One of our standby meals is roasted chicken using none other than the Showtime Compact Rotisserie & BBQ Oven (As Seen On TV). Before getting into the nitty gritty about how we use this thing I'm afraid I'm going to have to explain a bit about our relationship with said appliance...
Years ago (approximately 15 or so) my mother bought one of these things for us. Un-boxed, this thing can fits easily on a countertop but prior to the unveiling, the packaging is the size of a small coffee table. Coincidentally, that was exactly how we used the thing. We were living in an apartment in NYC with a kitchen the size of a small walk-in closet and we didn't think we could afford to dedicate what precious space we had to something we didn't think we would ever use. So, rather than giving it a test drive it sat in our living room with a tablecloth draped over it, in between our loveseat and sofa FOR YEARS.
When we moved into our suburban home we finally sliced open the box and broke it in and we've been using it on a regular basis ever since. After every 2-3 instances of use my husband and I ask ourselves why we didn't start using it earlier. We've used the crap out of this thing mostly for roasting all manner of poultry and meats with awesome results. The kids' favorite though is Daddy's roasted chicken seasoned with nothing more than kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. The rotisserie does the rest - self basting goodness! The hardest part about using it is when you're skewering a bird onto the spit. It seems a bit barbaric the first few times you do it (and feels kinda like you're violating it somehow). The biggest thing we ever put in it was a 13 pound turkey. It was a tight fit but was perfectly cooked.
In truth, I always thought the infomercials were pretty silly and I mentally placed this thing into the appliances-I-would-never-waste-my-money-on-because-it's-a-bunch-of-hooey. My Mom, on the other hand, was the consummate impulse shopper and if something caught her fancy she just "had to have it." And because she thought it was the best thing since pockets, she would, of course, want to share it with others. That was one of the coolest things about Mom - she always wanted to make sure everyone around her enjoyed life and the things in it as much as she did.
The original rotisserie she gave us (with her thick Filipino accent she pronounced it "row-tish-shee-airy") died out from too many dinners a while back so we have since replaced it with a new one - when we wear this one out we're likely to get yet another. Such is our affection for this favorite kitchen tool.
Now that you know the story here are a few tips you should know:
- Before you start cooking, make sure you tie down the legs and the wings so they don't graze the hot coils during rotation - if that happens, you definitely won't be able to "set it" or "forget it."
- If for any reason, it squeaks while rotating all you need to do is add a little vegetable oil to the spot where the removable spit meets the groove that holds it in place.
- It offers cooking time guidelines for categories of meats, i.e. 15 mins/pound for chicken and 18 mins/pound for beef. If you like your meats rare, you can shave a few minutes - totally depends on how charred you like it.
- Once the cook time up and the bell rings, let the bird or the roast beast rest while it continues the rotation with "No Heat" for about 5 minutes.
- The heat proof gloves that came with the row-tish-shee-airy are awesome by the way and are TRULY heat proof. (They look like the kind of things you see in the movies that are built into the wall of a hermetically sealed glass container and are appropriate for handling plutonium and stuff.)
The photos above don't do the roast justice (I'm still learning how to use my new camera) so you'll have to trust me when I say it was awesome. Since it's one of the most used items in the kitchen you'll notice it's got all the markings of an item that is used A LOT. As much as I would love for it to be as pristine as the day we opened the box, I like the fact that it looks as if we use the crap out of it. 'Cuz we have - lots of great family dinners came out of that thing.
Two more notes...
1) The bok choy you see on the plate was whipped up by my hubby - nothing terribly complicated. A little canola oil with minced garlic and sliced bok choy sauteed in a wok just until cooked and bright green. Another one of my kids' favorite dinner veggies.
2) The aroma of roasting chicken will drive you nuts when you're hungry and you'll find yourself staring at it while it rotates for minutes at a time with a fascination that is usually reserved for clothes dryers.
Enjoy!
