Flightless Roast Chicken Recipe

For a while my friend Pat and I have each been trying to create the perfect roast chicken. We’ve seasoned. We’ve salted. We’ve brined. We’ve buttered. We’ve rubbed. We’ve set off smoke detectors and hung over ovens basting and turning in various attempts to create the perfect roast chicken like the ones Pat would buy during her year living in Italy. Well my friend Judy and I raised lots of broiler chickens this year and I have a freezer full of chickens to try roasting. Most of the experiments have been good. Perfection would probably require a home rotisserie. One particularly good one I made was the one pictured above. The recipe is as follows:
1. Get some day old chicks and feed them only natural food and allow them to range on lush Vermont pasture.
2. After butchering, freeze the chickens that you can’t eat fresh, within 12-24 hours. Two days before you want a ‘flightless roast chicken’, take a chicken from the freezer. Unwrap it and allow it to defrost uncovered in the refrigerator on a plate
3. On the evening of day 2, cut off the wings. Pat dry if any moisture or juice has accumulated on the chicken or plate.
4. On day 3, take the chicken out of the refrigerator and rub liberally with salt and butter.
5. Roast it starting at 450-500 F. Turn down to 350F. after 25-30 minutes or when the smoke detector starts beeping, whichever comes first. Remove from oven when it looks right. Rest (both you and the chicken) and then dig it.

Now maybe you are wondering why the wings are cut off on day two. I will explain exactly why. On day two, I came home from work. I really wanted chicken, but the chicken was not defrosted yet. The wings were defrosted though, so I cut them off, slathered BBQ sauce on them and broiled them for my supper. The next day it was finally defrosted and I roasted what was left. It looks kind of silly without wings, doesn’t it, but it was good.