How to Spin a Chicken

Someone asked about cooking in our outdoor fireplace and I promised to show how we cook chickens. First we build a big fire with hardwood. Then we clean the chickens and stuff them with lemons, salt, pepper, sage and rosemary. We grow those in our garden so they are always available and fresh. Then we truss the chickens and leave about three feet of twine at their feet. Salt and pepper them real good at this point.

The Lord of the Manor made a quickie steel framework that sits on the hearth. We tie the twine to that and sit it on the hearth. Since the chickens drip a lot during cooking we always put an old pan underneath them.

Then we just sit out there socializing and spinning the chickens every few minutes. If you wind them up good they spin for quite a while. We cook them this way for one and a half hours. This is what they look like when they're done. They are so yummy with their crispy skin and herb flavoring. I kind of feel like a pioneer woman cooking this way.