Spit-roasting at home

Roasting meat on a spit may be as primitive as cooking meat can get, but it actually isn't as simple as I thought it would be. As I briefly mentioned in my Christmas post we'd bought a table-top Delonghi oven that happened to come with a rotisserie spit feature. Although we chose this oven primarily for its size (it was the largest table-top oven we could find), I must admit that the idea of spit-roasting a chook at home was novel. Last Friday I made an attempt at spit-roasting a chicken, and it took more effort and hence a longer time than I'd expected. I'm sure it was mainly due to my uncertainty and lack of experience as a beginner, and hopefully with time I will be serving home-cooked rotisserie chicken that is as good as those that come out of high-end consumer ovens, like at the supermarket in the mall downstairs.

Skewered whole chicken on a spit before it went in the oven. I should have tied the legs to secure the bird to the spit, but didn't have any kitchen twine:

In the oven and rotating. The roasting was interrupted a couple of times, because I didn't tie the legs (it flopped about a bit too much for my liking as it rotated). I did tie the legs eventually (see photo below):

90 minutes later, and the chook was done. Notice the legs are tied here. I had to improvise with paper twine (intended for tying newspaper and magazines into bundles for recycling), which seemed to work fine:

Golden crispy chicken sitting on the board waiting for the shears:

How did this first rotisserie chicken compare to the usual roast chicken I do? Presentation-wise, it looked beautiful with golden crisp skin all the way around. Taste-wise, the meat was dryer than a chook roasted in its juices in a pan. As it stands, I think I still prefer roasting chicken the traditional way in a roasting pan, because I can also get some roast veges done at the same time. I will continue using the oven's spit-roast fuction, and hopefully will be effortlessly churning out rotisserie chicken like a pro soon!