My First Nesco Roaster Experience

I mentioned on my last post that John bought me an 18-quart Nesco Roaster, just because.  It arrived yesterday, and this morning I did the “smoke out.”  When you first recieve the roaster, you have to clean it and then run it on the highest setting to condition it.  It will smoke and create nasty fumes while you do this, so put it in a place that is well-ventilated, and heat resistent.  The manual told me to run it for 60 minutes, but it actually took 120 minutes to stop smoking.  With the “smoke out” out of the way, I set my sights on dinner.

For my first meal, I chose my In-Law Chicken recipe.  The recipe book that I ordered with the roaster instructed me to cook the pre-heat the Nesco Roaster to 400°F, then cook the chicken at 375°F for 13 – 18 minutes per pound.  I instead pre-heated it to 500°F (as specified by my recipe) and cooked the chicken fo 30 minutes at that temperature before turning the chicken over and reducing the temperature to 375°F.  As I expected, the chicken did not turn brown and crispy.  What I didn’t expect was that it would be done a full 40 minutes early.  It’s just as tender and juicy as with the original recipe.

I pulled the chicken (rack and all) out of the roaster, put it on a cutting board and covered it with foil.  I turned the roaster temperature down to 325°F and started whisking in Wondra Flour to make gravy.  I also added 8 ounces of sauteed mushrooms.  Once the gravy was done, I poured it into a saucepan to keep it warm so that I could clean the roaster. I swear to you, I am not lying when I say that the roaster took only 3 minutes to clean.  Absolutely nothing was sticking to the cooking pan — I just gave it a quick wash in the sink and dried it with a towel.  Done.

I am loving this Nesco Roaster.

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