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Roast Philadelphia Chicken
Singe, cut the head and legs off, draw, wipe neatly and truss a tender two-and-a-half-pound roasting chicken. Lay it in a roasting pan; season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper; pour two tablespoons cold water into the pan. Glaze the chicken all over with a tablespoon melted butter, then place in a moderate oven to roast for forty-five minutes, taking care to baste it frequently with its own gravy, turning it over once in a while. Dress in a hot dish. Untruss, decorate the dish with watercress and serve.
A plain roast bird, written for a cook who bought her chicken with head and feet still attached. Almost all the prep steps have already been done for you.
- Moderate ovenSet the oven to 350F. At that temperature a 2 1/2 lb bird will need closer to an hour than the stated forty-five minutes; go by a thermometer reading of 165F in the thickest part of the thigh.
- Singe, draw, wipeSingeing burned off residual pinfeathers over a flame, and "draw" means remove the innards. A supermarket chicken arrives plucked and drawn, so begin at trussing. Reserve any giblets in the cavity bag for stock.
- The size of the birdA 2 1/2 lb roasting chicken is smaller than most birds sold today; the closest thing is a poussin pair or a small 3 lb chicken. A 4 lb bird will need appreciably longer -- reckon on an hour and a half, judged by thermometer -- and proportionally more salt.
- TrussingTie the legs together and the wings against the body with kitchen string. It matters here because the recipe has you turn the bird over during roasting, and an untrussed chicken splays and dries at the extremities.
- The two tablespoons of waterThis is not for moisture in the oven but to keep the drippings from scorching in the first minutes, so there is something to baste with. Top it up with a spoonful if the pan runs dry.
- White pepperUsually chosen so no dark specks marred a pale-skinned bird. Black pepper will do if that is what you have, though it tastes noticeably different.
- GlazeHere "glaze" means no more than brushing with the melted butter for colour and sheen. Turning the bird gives it an even skin, but finish breast-side up so it presents well.
- Yield and servingA bird this size serves two, three at a stretch. Let it rest ten minutes before carving; spoon the pan juices over and use watercress, which is peppery enough to stand in for a sauce.
The "Philadelphia" chicken of nineteenth-century American cookery seems to have referred less to a method than to a reputation: Philadelphia markets, and the poultry raised in the surrounding Pennsylvania and New Jersey countryside, were widely praised as a source of small, tender spring birds, much as Philadelphia scrapple and Philadelphia ice cream carried the city's name as a mark of quality. The recipe's austerity is the point — a bird good enough needed only salt, pepper, butter and diligent basting, and the cook's skill showed in the basting rather than in a sauce.