Those two words alone are a good reason why you need a NuWave Oven. Yes, I know it is a product mostly sold via infomercials, and a lot of infomercial stuff is crap, but this is something that really works just as advertised!
Last night, I cooked a whole chicken in this thing. I decided to use a recipe in the Steven Raichlen book that I talked about in my last post. Not that you really need a recipe for roast chicken, but the caramelized onion sauce that went with it sounded tasty.
The recipe called for cooking the chicken in an indoor rotisserie…Steven uses the Showtime, another infomercial product. I actually have the George Foreman rotisserie, and the recipe would have worked just as well in that. But I wanted to see how it would turn out in the NuWave.
Steven’s recipe called for seasoning the bird with herbes de Provence. But I was running low on the premade variety, Shaw’s didn’t have any more, and I didn’t want to spend money on a whole jar of lavender that I’d never use up. So I gave Mike a choice in seasoning: Italian seasoning, original Emeril’s Essence, or Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Poultry Magic. All of which I already had on hand at home.
He chose the Paul Prudhomme one. Good choice! But you can season your chicken with anything you like and have on hand. Okay, maybe something like vanilla extract might be nasty, but you know what I mean!
All you have to do to cook a perfect roast chicken in the NuWave is to READ THE DIRECTIONS THAT CAME WITH THE APPLIANCE! I swear, it never ceases to amaze me as to how many people complain that something doesn’t work as advertised, when they didn’t read the directions before using it.
Our chicken was 5 1/2 pounds, fresh, not frozen. So in the NuWave, according to the instructions, it cooks for 15 minutes per pound, which comes to about an hour and 22 1/2 minutes, if you’re being exact about such things.
Basically, you season the chicken with salt, pepper, and whatever other seasonings you are using, in both the neck and main cavities. Then lay the bird, breast side DOWN, on the 1 inch rack in the NuWave. I like to spray the rack lightly with Pam first, just in case it might stick. Brush the side that is facing up with some olive oil, season with salt, pepper, etc. Since I was using the Chef Paul seasoning, which already contains salt, and Mike shouldn’t be having so much salt, I omitted the additional salt and just added additional pepper. Cover the oven, set it to whatever is half of the total cooking time for the weight of the bird, and let it cook.
When the machine beeps, turn the bird over so that it’s breast side up. I used heavy paper toweling to protect my hands while doing this. Brush this side with olive oil, season with whatever you are seasoning it with, cover, set for the other half of the cooking time, and let it cook.
Once it’s done, remove the bird, tent with foil to keep warm, and let rest for 5-10 minutes before carving. I used this time to cook some asparagus on the 4 inch rack. Simple…one pound asparagus, trimmed, tossed in a little bit of olive oil and seasoned with garlic powder and lemon pepper. Salt if your doctor won’t beat you for having it. Arrange on NuWave rack, and cook on HIGH for 5 minutes.
The sauce is something you do on the stovetop. Chop a medium onion, and cook it in 2 tablespoons melted butter until golden, adding 2 minced garlic gloves after about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup white wine, let it cook down until there are only a couple of tablespoons of liquid left. Add 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, raise the heat to high, and let it boil down to about 1 cup. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream, bring to a simmer (lower the heat, or else the cream will boil over and make a huge mess!). Simmer until slightly thickened. Season with salt & pepper to taste. This whole sauce-making process should take about 15 minutes. You can do it while the chicken is still NuWaving, it can easily be reheated if done ahead.
The chicken? Perfection. I admit that I was a bit skeptical as to whether the skin would turn out crispy and all, but it did. The dark meat was completely done, without drying out the breast meat. Even Mike, who thinks that all infomercial stuff is crap, is sold on this appliance now. He can’t stop raving about this chicken!
It’s been said many times that the test of a good cook is how they do a roast chicken. With a NuWave Oven, you can do this, and be the envy of your family and friends!
2 Comments
That recipe sounds really good, I may have to write this down, or just come back here later on and copy it before I go grocery shopping tomorrow to pick up the seasoning so I don’t forget what it’s called.
I am SOOOOOO glad that you like the NuWave oven!!!
I absolutely love mine, we use it to cook almost every single thing in, I really can’t think of anything that we eat that we use the regular oven for. We still cook some stuff in the microwave, like the boxed hot wings the teens like, but everything else gets cooked in the Nuwave oven.
Don’t you just love it?!
And yes, people need to read the directions.
I read the complaints on that one website, and every single one, I was like yup, there’s another idiot who didn’t read the manual and the directions, there’s one who didn’t read the cooking chart, etc etc.
People can be so stupid and then have the nerve to say that the product is at fault.
It’s not the product because everything that I have cooked in it has come out to perfection every single time.
Kat, this thing is awesome! I’m looking forward to trying other stuff in it, such as steaks, burgers, fish, etc.
I should tell Mike’s cardiologist about this appliance, in case he is not already aware of it. he should consider recommending it to his other patients who need to reduce the fat in their diets. You should have seen how much fat dropped off my chicken, fat that the chicken would have sat in if cooked in a regular pan in a regular oven, unless you use a rack in the pan. Yeah, the fat drips off in the George Foreman rotisserie, too. But the rotisserie takes longer to cook, and is a bit more difficult to clean. I’m sure you will agree that ease of cleaning is a very important selling point. If something is easy to use and clean, people will keep using it. If it’s too difficult, the thing ends up collecting dust and then is sold at next summer’s yard sale.
I don’t know what more the NuWave people can do to make things clear to users. I mean, it came with a big, laminated cooking chart that should make using this thing a no-brainer.
I love my new toy!