Rotisserie Chicken

Sometime in the early 90’s, Kenny Roger’s Roasters opened in our area.  I fell in love with the place.  Great chicken and fantastic sides.  Then they all disappeared.  Last I heard, they didn’t have any in the US.  They have them in Asia.  I really miss the place.  That stuff was so good Seinfeld did a whole episode about it. Kramer and Newman got addicted to it.  Funny stuff.  I miss Seinfeld and Kenny Rogers.

So, I started experimenting looking for a recipe for chicken at home.  I do like Kentucky Fried and Knott’s Berry Farm has the absolute best fried chicken.  Then El Pollo Loco and Juan Pollo both have really good stuff.

Click here to enlarge

In 2008, when I retired, as a gift I got a bbq grill with a rotisserie.  I use the grill constantly and the rotisserie about four times a year. I haven’t had a bad chicken from it yet.  So my recipe today is rotisserie chicken.

There’s only two of us at my house so I buy a five pound whole chicken and we have lot’s of leftovers.  I figure it would serve four easy.  My brother and his wife came to visit then a friend dropped in to see them, so suddenly I’m cooking for five and I cooked two at once.  We’re pretty big eaters (the men anyway) and we pigged out and still had lots of leftovers.

A trick I learned is to brine the chicken.  Brining chicken and other meat is simply soaking it in salt water.  It tenderizes it and keeps it moist during cooking.  What happens is the salt causes the meat to absorb water.  I recommend it plus you can also call this a marinade and add your herbs and spices.  I would brine it even for frying.  For rotisserie chicken, I use 1 cup salt and a gallon of water.  I let the chicken soak for about eight hours.  My friend tells us that when she worked at knott’s, they would soak the chicken all night in the brine.

I mix up a ½ cup oil (or butter) with ¼ tablespoon each salt and pepper and a full tablespoon paprika for basting.  I have added lemon, garlic, orange and/or lemon juice.  It gives the skin a little different flavor but the chicken stays about the same.

Use a pan beneath the chicken to catch the drippings.  That way, when you run out, there’s still plenty to keep basting

Put it on the skewer, tie up the legs and wings, and let it cook until the chicken is 180 degrees in the breast and thigh.  On my grill, it takes about 2 to 2 ½  hours.  Mine has an infrared back burner.  My friends tell me that without that it doesn’t take as long. One guy does a beer can chicken the same way.  I haven’t tried it.  He says 45 minutes.

I do know this though, it sure is good! Let me know if you come up with any interesting marinades or soaks.

I hope you enjoy it.