Brown Bag Chicken
Hi friends, today on our Facebook Live Video I shared a wacky idea with all of our friends out there in Facebook land. Today we learned how to make Brown Bag Chicken. Simply put, I demonstrated how to cook a whole chicken in a brown grocery bag. This is an old technique from maybe as long as 80 years ago. Way back before plastic oven roasting bags were invented and home cooks were looking for a way to bake a moist, juicy chicken in their oven. I was so amazed the first time I tried this technique I just had to share it with all of you. And I love sharing something a little “off the wall” with you! It is fun to keep you guessing with what crazy idea will she have next!
Now the fun part of this recipe is how simple it really is. Once you get the technique down you can modify it to whatever flavor profile your family is craving that night, whatever spices you have on hand, or let your imagination run wild! For our FB Live video and the recipe, I have shared with you below we made a Lemon/Thyme compound butter. Compound butters bring a lot of flavor to the party and are really easy to make. Last fall I shared A Cajun compound butter recipe in my recipe for Instant Pot Cajun Turkey Breast. You could easily use that compound butter here if you like some heat!
Safety First w/ Brown Bag Chicken
There are a few safety tips I need to mention when I suggest you put a PAPER BAG in a 400 degree oven. They are simple, but here they are.
- Place your oven rack in the lower 1/3rd of your oven. You don’t want it on the lowest rack because it won’t brown like you want it to, but you want plenty of room for the bag to clear the top of the oven.
- Roll your brown bag tightly so that your bag is confined to the space on your rimmed sheet tray. And so that it is compact. You want to make sure that the bag does not touch the sides or top of the oven. This is the most important part.
- When you place your sheet tray in the oven with your brown bag on it, triple check that the bag is not touching the sides or the top of the oven. That is all you need to know. It will cook for 1 ½ hours and be finished.
Brown Bag Chicken
Ingredients
- 3-4 pound whole chicken
- 1 stick salted butter softened
- 3-4 sprigs fresh Thyme equaling 1 tsp leaves
- 1 lemon
- Salt & fresh ground black pepper
- 1 large brown paper grocery bag as little writing on it as you can find
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and move a single rack in your oven to the lower 1/3rd of your oven.
- Rinse and dry your chicken, making sure to remove package of giblets from interior of chicken. Your chicken needs to be DRY for your compound butter to coat the chicken evenly. Paper towels do this job nicely.
- Pull the leaves from your thyme sprigs and zest your lemon.
- In a small bowl mix your softened butter with your thyme leaves & lemon zest.
- With your hands or the back of a spoon spread the compound butter evenly over your prepared chicken. Season your chicken with salt and pepper. Cut lemon in half and place in the cavity of your chicken.
- Place your open grocery bag on its side on a rimmed sheet tray. Carefully place your prepared chicken inside the grocery bag. Roll the end of the grocery bag closed tightly and tuck the edges of the bag in to insure none of the bag is sticking out past the edges of the sheet tray.
- Place sheet tray inside of preheated oven, making sure that bag is not touching the sides or top of the oven.
- Bake chicken for 1 ½ hours. Or internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
- You can wrap entire bag in foil to keep warm. The bag contains all of the juice from cooking so when you open it all of the juice and steam will escape. So be careful!
