Nothing tastes better than food prepared on an open fire
- Carbohydrate 12.299773379875 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.123584141625 g
- Fiber 2.11025401699887 g
- Protein 1.50163073425 g
- Saturated Fat 0.027980002025 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (144g)
- Sodium 6980.687192775 mg
- Sugar 10.1895193628761 g
- Trans Fat 0.0434390687875 g
- Calories 51 calories
Step-by-step
- Place the chicken in a large bowl with an adequate lid. Add enough water to cover the chicken. Place orange and lemon slices into the water along with the 1/2 cup of table salt. Refrigerate overnight.
- About 4 hours before you are going to eat, start about 30 (or more) pieces of charcoal in a fire pit. I use a charcoal chimney for this purpose.
- While waiting for the charcoals to become hot, remove the chicken from the brine and rinse well. Pat dry with paper towels.
- Place the cleaned garlic cloves, sprigs of rosemary and the fresh time into the cavity of the chicken.
- Using kitchen string, tie the legs and wings closely to the chicken. This will allow the chicken to cook evenly.
- Pour the peanut oil into a #16 cast iron dutch oven with a lipped lid.
- Add the baby new potatoes, rolling them around a bit to distribute some of the oil onto them.
- Push the potatoes off to the sides of the pan and add the prepared chicken.
- Cut the growing ends off the whole garlic cloves and arrange them around the chicken, bottoms-down, with the potatoes. Do not remove the skins from the whole cloves.
- Drizzle a little more peanut oil on the garlic heads.
- I cover the entire chicken with more sprigs of rosemary and thyme, but this is not necessary.
- Place the lid on the pan.
- After the coals are ready, prepare a bed of 15-20 coals in a single layer on the ground, making sure they are in the basic shape and size of the cast iron pan.
- Place the pan on the coals.
- Insert a digital or oven-safe thermometer into the thickest point on the chicken.
- Place the lid on the pan an cover with the remaining hot coals.
- When the temperature of the chicken reaches 180 degrees F, carefully remove the pan from the charcoal, sweeping the spent charcoal from the lid, as well. If you do this carefully, the ashes will not fall into the pan with the chicken.
- Place the cooked chicken on a platter and allow to rest for about 20 minutes before carving.
Swapping peanut oil for unrefined walnut oil imparts a distinct nuttiness to the potatoes, though it burns at a lower heat threshold. Brining raw poultry overnight fundamentally alters the muscle proteins, dissolving myosin strands so they trap moisture instead of expelling it during extended heat application. Timing the charcoal is the central logistical hurdle here, requiring thirty to forty briquettes ignited four hours prior to cooking to establish a steady, radiating bed of heat. When utilizing a cast-iron dutch oven outdoors, temperature management relies on distributing fifteen to twenty coals beneath the vessel while banking the remainder atop the lipped lid for even thermal convection. Pull the heavy-duty pan away from the fire pit only after a digital thermometer registers an internal reading of 180 degrees Fahrenheit in the deepest muscle of the thigh. Skipping the twenty-minute resting period on a warm platter causes the internal juices to rush out upon slicing, leaving the meat dry and stringy.
