Chicken in a bag, best not to use the bag. (Super Wave Oven Tip)

Tonight for dinner.  I attempted to cook a 5 pound chicken in my Super Wave Oven, with McCormick “Bag ‘n Season” Chicken.  In a conventional oven, you can use the bag and season to cook chicken pieces, or an full chicken with no issues.  Tonight in the Super Wave Oven, I cooked the thawed chicken in the bag with seasoning in a cake pan on the low rack, for 55 minutes at 460 degrees F.  (I used 460 degrees F, since that is the recommended temperature for a whole chicken in the Super Wave Cooking guide, that comes with the Super Wave Oven.)  The extender ring had to be used, since without that the bag was nearly touching the Super Wave Oven heating element.  I tested with a meat thermometer and the chicken was not as hot internally as I desired.  So I cooked it another 10 minutes, 1 hour 5 minutes total.  Then I removed the pan from the Super Wave Oven, with the chicken in the bag.

When I attempted to remove the bag from the chicken, the bag had fused to the skin of the chicken.  This probably occurred, because the Super Wave Oven has heat coming from the top, directly onto the top of the bag.  So as I removed the bag, I was literally skinning the chicken, totally removed the skin from the chicken.  The chicken tasted good and was very moist.  But the Super Wave Oven can make a cooked moist chicken without a bag, I’ve even done it from frozen.

I’ve always had to cook whole chickens longer than the cooking guide recommends.  In this case, although the chicken was cooked, some interior parts were still a little pink.  The meat near the bone of one drumstick was fully cooked, but the other drumstick had a little pink near the bone.

I would recommend you not use a cooking bag with poultry in the Super Wave Oven.  Unless you want to use it as a means to easily remove the skin.  And be certain to continue using the meat thermometer until the internal temperature reaches 180 degrees F.