Rotisserie is a cooking method in which food is skewered on a rotating spit and cooked slowly over or in front of a heat source, so it browns and self-bastes evenly on all sides. The name comes from the French rotir, "to roast." It's most often used for whole chickens, turkeys, and large roasts, where the constant turning renders fat and produces a crisp exterior with a moist interior; the same idea appears in Middle Eastern shawarma and Latin American asado-style spit roasting. Compared to static oven roasting, the rotation reduces the need for manual basting and cooks the food more evenly.