My problem with the 450 chicken was less cleaning the oven and more a fear that I might overheat the the ancient old wiring behind the stove in this old apartment and set us all on fire. I’ve found that starting the chicken at 475 for twenty minutes and then lowering the temp to 350 gives me equally crispy skin and moist meat. I use a plain cast iron pan and start by heating that up super high on top of the stove, then put the chicken directly in it and then into the stove. I also oil the bird first and haven’t had problems with soggy skin at all.
Try another time with a CI skillet. You may find that there is less smoke and spatter.
Somehow I’m failing to get my point across. When roasting in a clean oven, no problem, no smoking. Roasting in that same oven for a second time generates the smoke, which is evidence to me that what happens to the fat in the first roasting is it gets all over the oven interior gets baked on as the oven cools. The second roasting’s heat causes the first roasting’s oil splatters to burn and smoke. The skillet is irrelevant unless the CI has some magical qualities to absorb all the spattering fat.
And that is a very real possibility. Good for you for considering it beforehand!
I didn’t, and blew out our stove trying to preheat it to 450F for a pizza. It literally blew up - sparked and everything. Thankfully did not actually set us on fire, though perhaps that was because I was home at the time and ran for the fusebox right away.
Note that the downstairs apartment shortly thereafter experienced a fire due to faulty wiring. So the combination of ancient stove (and consequently equally ancient heating element) and elderly wiring is not a good one, and not something to be forgotten or ignored.
1 Like
k, I do the Zuni chicken which is similar and not had the smoking problem that others have described. I’ve wondered if my CI skillet is the difference.
