This is a way to cook your whole chicken.
It is so simple, even for the busiest lifestyle.

1 - frozen “Autumn Olive Farm Pastured Chicken”
1 - Reynolds oven bag

• Place frozen chicken in Reynolds oven bag, then place on pan.
• Place pan with chicken in oven.
• Turn oven to 200 degrees.
• Cook chicken 2 hours per every 1# of chicken. example: 4 lb. chicken = 8 hours.

You can put this in before you leave for work, or set your oven start timer to start the oven so it will be ready when you come home.

Being you cook the bird at such a low temperature for such a long time. It preserves more of the food enzymes and vitamins that are so important to healthy eating.

This is an easier and healthier alternative to fast food.
Don’t forget to save the juices and drippings from the chicken, as they are high in the Omega 3 fatty acids, the good fat. It makes good chicken soup or chicken stock.

BRINING:
Warning: you will not believe this until you try it.
The secret to the best poultry you have ever eaten (I'm very serious) is proper brining before cooking. No matter what you do after, brine it first. Fried, grilled, baked, roasted, potted, smoked - it doesn't matter. Brine. It. First.
If you are not brining, you have some explaining to do. Like why that turkey breast was so dry.
And why the fried chicken is chewy. I know - it sounds too simple. Brining takes no talent, almost no work and no adult supervision. It is not Rocket Science, it is Organic Chemistry. It will improve even my pasture grown birds, which most folks say are the best they've had and don't need improving.

Brining works for two reasons:
First, salt breaks down proteins in the meat and, by doing so, tenderizes. You will notice the difference.
Second, the liquid that gets loaded into the meat by osmosis makes the meat juicy. Seriously juicy - dry grilled chicken will be a thing of the past. The breast on the Thanksgiving turkey will actually be edible!

Formula for brine:
¼ cup Kosher Salt and ¼ cup white sugar per quart of cold (as cold as possible without being stupid about it) water. I started with the Cook's Illustrated recipe which is twice as strong. It was a little too much salt for me, although it was ok to eat. But if you are used to more salt, try it.

Stir until completely dissolved. Make enough to cover the poultry completely in a comfortable but not over-large container (plastic or stainless steel is best). Brine is not marinade. You want chemical changes here, not fancy taste changes. It ain't brine if it has other stuff in it. You want the salt to do it's work, the water to get in to be there for cooking. So it is simple.

Kosher Salt is less dense than regular table salt. If all you have is table salt, halve the quantity (1/8 cup per quart of water). And buy Kosher Salt for next time. The sugar is there because it works. I don't know the scientific reason, but you won't taste it in the final product. Brine without it is not as good. It does help color the final product as well. Some brine recipes call for up to double the salt. We use so little salt in our diet that the bigger amount is too much for us. You might want more, but start off at the above amount.

Procedure for brining:
Do not try to brine partially frozen poultry. It does not work. We brine whole poultry because we cook whole poultry. If you like to cut yours up, do it after brining. Otherwise, you will need to reduce the time in the brine. We go an hour or so per pound (use the size of the largest piece) to a maximum of 8 hours, as taught by Cooks Magazine. Our monster chickens go about 6 hours. The turkeys go 8 hours.

Put the brining poultry in the refrigerator so that you don't grow stuff that is unhealthy - unlikely unless it's warm - but prudence is the better part of survival. After brining, you can hold the drained bird in a plastic bag, marinate, cook immediately, whatever. Prepare for a radical difference. Don't believe me? Try it.