ROAST CAPON WITH CHILI-CILANTRO RUB AND ROASTED CARROTS

Steps:

• Rinse capon and snip away any excess fat from cavity using kitchen shears.
• Pat capon dry and season with salt inside and out.
• Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• While capon is standing, mash garlic to a paste using a mortar and pestle.
• Add cilantro, chile powder, cumin, and butter and mash to a paste again.
• Arrange capon, breast side up, with neck toward you, and gently work your fingers between skin and flesh of the breast, working your way down to thighs.
• Rub 1/3 of the butter mixture under skin of breast and thighs and rub another 1/3 into the cavity of the bird, then tie the legs together with kitchen string.
• Put capon in a buttered roasting pan.
• Scatter carrots around bird and season with salt and pepper.
• Pour water over the carrots.
• Roast in middle of the oven 45 minutes.
• Remove pan from the oven and brush top and sides of the bird with the remaining 1/3 of the butter mixture.
• Continue to roast basting capon and carrots with pan juices every 20 minutes (tent capon with foil if it gets too brown), until a thermometer inserted 2" into fleshy part of a thigh registers 170 degrees, about 2 hours more.
• Transfer carrots with some of the pan juices to a heated serving dish and keep warm, covered.
• Let capon stand 20 minutes before carving.