Tyler's Ultimate Roast Chicken (or not)

I read a post on Sarah Cooks where Sarah comments on how much she likes Tyler Florence. I haven't seen any of his shows before, so I curiously went exploring through the Food Network website to have a look at his recipes. The Food Network website is a nightmare to navigate through, almost as bad as the Lifestyle Food website, but thanks to Google, I got there in the end. I was impressed, and decided to give his Ultimate Roast Chicken a try.

Before I go into detail, have you read this poem?

I didn't have potatoes,
so I substituted rice.
Didn't have paprika,
so I used another spice.
I didn't have tomato sauce,
so I used tomato paste.
A whole can not a half can -
I don't believe in waste.My friend gave me the recipe -
she said you couldn't beat it.
There must be something wrong with her,
I couldn't even eat it. (source unknown)

Well, that poem comes quite close to the truth with this chicken. The recipe calls for bunches of fresh herbs and an orange (among other things) and calls for a gravy to be made with the drippings. I didn't have fresh herbs, so I used dried. I didn't have an orange or any other citrus for that matter, so I drizzled over some lemon juice. I didn't have bacon, so I used pancetta. I was making this for lunch boxes, so I didn't make the gravy. And then I wonder why it didn't turn out as ultimate as it should have.

Don't get me wrong, it was still tasty chicken, but I think it would be hard for chicken cooked with that much butter to not to be tasty. Next time I won't try to be substitution-happy and I'll choose another recipe that suits what I have lying around.

So, this post really isn't about Tyler's Ultimate Roast Chicken, but more about how I butchered the recipe. I'm not even going to post more detail about what I did, how about you just go and look at the proper recipe here.

Hey, it's April Fools' Day. No jokes here, though!