It was that time again. Time for me to cook dinner for my friend and her husband in exchange for a much-needed massage. What a great exchange. I get to cook for people that appreciate a good home-cooked meal and in return I get total relaxation for an hour. I wish I was friends with a hungry retailer. I could use some new clothes. Maybe someone that does hair wants a fabulous meal each month? And if I can find someone that cleans houses that appreciates good, fresh food, how fabulous would that be? The list could be almost endless.
I had 2 small chickens in the freezer which I picked up for a song at Wegmans last week at $o.88/lb. Since it was a gray, wet day and supposed to be for the remainder of the week with fierce winds headed our way, I thought a comfort food was the only way to go.
When trying to decide which pan to use, I remembered a post on Ruhlman.com, but I didn’t go to the site looking for a roast chicken recipe. I remembered seeing a beautifully cooked chicken resting in a cast iron skillet. I don’t know why with all the All Clad and Le Creuset I have in almost every nook and cranny of my house, the idea of roasting a chicken in a basic Lodge pan captured my attention. I’ve been thinking about it for the past few weeks. and it was time to give it a try.
I worried that this little bird might have been too big for my 10″ skillet and that the pan juices would run right off the pouring spouts on either side so I placed it on a jellyroll pan. Luckily, my worry was unfounded and though the bird put off quite a bit of liquid, there was no danger of overflowing. I don’t know if using the cast iron pan made any difference in the results, but it certainly didn’t hurt.
I decided to split the chicken down the back and open it up in the pan. I’m not sure why. I’ve done it on occasion when using a grill or broiling a chicken, but for some reason I decided to give it a try in the skillet. I made a compound butter using fresh basil, thyme and oregano from my indoor garden.
And butter’s not enough for me so I added a little olive oil before putting the chicken in the oven.
What came out was a nicely roasted chicken and enough pan juices to make a great gravy.
In the end, it was a great way to roast a bird and having a pan to create the gravy in after the chicken was roasted and resting, was an added bonus. I’d do it again. As a matter of fact, I did just that tonight.
Tonight’s chicken dinner was delicious. This time I decided to stick with the traditional method of trussing the chicken before roasting. I recreated the compound butter from the previous day, but this time I rubbed a small amount of smoked paprika on the skin — for both flavor and color. Dinner was great!
Have you ever roasted a chicken in a skillet? I’d love to hear how it turned out.
In 2007 my career with a large, but shrinking high tech Fortune 50 \"left me,\" leaving a void in my life. While lamenting the loss and flying around the world looking for a new career to get married to, I discovered a way to use a familiar outlet during tough times -- writing. My blog-writing morphed into writing about my favorite past time -- Food! I purchase food, sell food, make food, watch food being made, broadcast meal preparation, photograph and blog about food. Like I said; Food! To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. 
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No I have not roasted a chicken in a skillet, but with all the snow outside today I might give it a try! Nothing like a roasted chicken on a stormy night. And we’re supposed to get SOME STORM!
Ha, your spatchcocked chicken looks so MODEST in the final roasted photo. What a coy bird you cooked!