What do I use to baste a roast chicken?

July 13, 2013 10:17 AM

Vegetarian Roasting a Chicken-filter: I am making this recipe. In paragraph 4, it says to baste the chicken halfway through cooking, and add a splash of water if the veggies (underneath it) are dry. If the veggies are dry, I assume that means there are no juices in the pan, so...what would I be using to baste the chicken?
posted by Siobhan to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

I like using honey, butter, chicken broth from a can, and rosemary. If you jam the butter and honey (at room temperature) underneath the chicken skin before you stick the bird in the oven, it's divine.
posted by spunweb at 10:20 AM on July 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It means if the veggies are dry on top. There should be fat from the oil/butter/lard and liquid from the juices/broth that you can use to baste. The chicken shouldn't be swimming in liquid, you may just need to tip the roasting pan in order to collect some liquid and pour it over the chicken and the veggies.
posted by Joh at 10:38 AM on July 13, 2013

What Joh said. There's sometimes less liquid than needed to cover the vegetables and keep them moist, but there's almost always at least some liquid.
posted by jaguar at 11:02 AM on July 13, 2013

Best answer: And if you're anxious about it, I would think a good "just in case" plan, given this particular recipe, would be lemon juice whisked with olive oil. Chicken broth, if you have some on hand, is also a good back-up plan.
posted by jaguar at 11:06 AM on July 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Perfect -- thank you!
posted by Siobhan at 11:11 AM on July 13, 2013

You'll get plenty of liquid coming out of the chicken itself and can use that. We made a similar recipe last weekend, and by the end the chicken was swimming in liquid, enough to make a decent amount of pan gravy. You'll have a bit less, as ours was a closed-lid recipe (no crispy skin at the end, but so tasty!) and you'll have more evaporation, but still plenty.
posted by telophase at 11:55 AM on July 13, 2013

if there's enough juice to baste the chicken, but not so much left ofter to baste the veggies too, just turn them over...the goal of basting is 'keep the tops of things from drying out'
posted by sexyrobot at 12:05 PM on July 13, 2013

You can also use white wine. Just splash over the chicken to add flavor to the veggies. The alcohol cooks off and leaves the bright flavor of wine. You can also use some wine, some broth, some butter - whatever combination you like - to have the flavor you like best.

A tent of foil over the chicken for most of the cooking period, not sealed, which would cause the chicken to steam, but an open piece like a pup tent will help to keep down the evaporation. During the last 10 minutes or so remove the foil to allow the skin to brown.
posted by citygirl at 6:23 PM on July 13, 2013

In my experience, you want to baste with mostly fat. Basting can be a bit of a waste of time so don't sweat it. Letting your veggies burn in the pan can be a bummer. I'd keep a closer eye on those. You want them to brown/roast not steam/braise or burn/combust.
posted by Foam Pants at 12:07 AM on July 14, 2013

Response by poster: Reporting back: there was very little juice in the pan, so I used jaguar's lemon juice/olive oil mixture to baste. Next time I will flip the veggies over too -- thanks, sexyrobot. (Citygirl, I have been veggie for 20+ years, so have no idea what flavors I would like best.)

My carnivore reports that the chicken (and also gravy!) was delicious.
posted by Siobhan at 10:46 AM on July 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh, good. I was hoping you'd update. Glad it turned out well!
posted by jaguar at 1:00 PM on July 15, 2013