Rock Oven Chicken Bake

Posted by Herb

I finally made a whole chicken in my rock oven. Bread baking works well in it (orig. built for heating purposes and not baking) but I was not sure how roasting a chicken would go.

Anyway, I had bought a little grill unit that you stick a half-empty beer can onto and then slip the chicken over the can. Supposed to keep the bird moist. Well, when I set it up I found that it would not fit through the door of my rock oven!

So then I flipped the unit over and just lay the tinfoil wrapped chicken down on it. Good enough for a test I thought. Got the stove going with a NICE bed of oak coals. Stuck the chicken in when the temp was about 500 F. but I knew it would drop fast. Lots of nice sizzling sounds and a good smell. Only thing I did wrong was toss in a few more small pieces of wood which caused flames to shoot up so I removed the chicken until the fire died down so it wouldn't burn. Took the top tinfoil off it then too.

Had it in for about 2 hours. Temp was down to 250 F. when I took it out. Internal bird temp was 180 F. Breast nicely crispy.

Overall, it turned out PERFECTLY!

I will do this again....