When we bought our home and added the kitchen, I knew I had to have two ovens. I don’t use them both often — but when I do want to cook a feast and need them, it’s priceless. This is a concept that really hasn’t caught in Germany, mostly because people have rather small kitchens anyway. Thankfully we already had one oven that we bought when we first moved to Germany which was part of our first kitchen. In case you haven’t heard, most rental apartments don’t have a kitchen. It’s a bit strange to get used to the idea that people move their kitchens like the rest of their furniture, but it seems to be working for people.

At any rate, we bought a new really nice Whirlpool oven from IKEA when we bought the rest of our new kitchen. I got it because it was self-cleaning…and I would be lying if I said I’d used that feature more than 5 times. That doesn’t mean that my oven is filthy. Thanks to discoveries like pouring salt on a baked on spill while the oven is still warm, my oven is pretty much spotless. I even cleaned the glass inside the oven the other day which was a mission…but I’m digressing.

So one of the other features this oven has is a rotisserie spit. I know, it’s sounds incredible…and it pretty much is. But before you go and get too jealous, it actually doesn’t turn so you have to rotate the chicken yourself every 30 minutes or so. But oh-my-gosh was that chicken good! We feasted on it two nights in row (that bird weighed in at about 5 pounds) and then I boiled it down and made some delicious chicken noodle soup with it. Twelve meals from one chicken…that’s what I’m talking about!

Here’s my recipe for rotisserie chicken. I can’t wait to head back to the farmer’s market for another one. There is a guy who visits our town every Wednesday with a trailer full of rotisserie chicken –sort of a mobile chicken roasting station. They’re actually quite popular here. The entire town smells like roasted chicken on those days. And it tastes darn good. But there’s just something special about making your own…and we certainly got a lot more meals out of our bird!

The setting in our oven uses both the broiler and a fan at the back blowing air around. I don’t know if your oven has a feature like that too, but if so, here’s how you can try this out. Or maybe you’re like me and have this feature but haven’t used it in the 4 years you’ve had your oven. You can also adapt this recipe for the grill.

Serve this with a fresh salad or your favorite vegetables and beer rice.