Roast Chicken

Image courtesy of Barefoot Contessa

Simultaneously the simplest dish and the most elegant, roast chicken is one of those go-to meals any time of year. It can be an easy weeknight dish, satisfy a craving for a home-cooked meal, or served as the centerpiece for a lovely dinner party. It’s also one of those quick and easy recipes you should have in your back pocket.

And because it’s so versatile, you can serve it with just about any side dish. Roasted potatoes. Cous cous. Basmati rice. Broccoli rabe in garlic and oil. A simple salad. Frankly, that’s how I prefer my roast chicken. Make the chicken the highlight of the meal. I often serve it with just a mesclun mix dressed lightly with a champagne vinaigrette, warmed baguette, and a nice Sancerre. Now, that’s good eatin.’

There isn’t a top chef or major food star out there who doesn’t tout the simple beauty of a roast chicken. Ina Garten. Jacques Pepin. Martha Stewart and so many others. Roast chicken is the winningest meal. 

Julia Child said in her Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, “You can always judge the quality of a cook or a restaurant by roast chicken. While it does not require years of training to produce a juicy, brown, buttery, crisp-skinned, heavenly bird, it does entail such a greed for perfection that one is under compulsion to hover over the bird, listen to it, above all see that it is continually basted, and that it is done just to the proper turn.” The Joy of Cooking agrees with Child that it doesn’t take a restaurant chef to cook a good chicken. It just takes a good quality bird, a solid roasting pan, and a hot oven.

Here’s my favorite recipe:

1 3-4 lb. chicken

1 lemon, halved

1 bunch of thyme

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Blot chicken dry inside and out. Coat the chest cavity with salt. Cover the outside with good quality olive oil, salt, and pepper. Inside the cavity, place the lemon halved and the bunch of thyme. In a roasting pan covered in foil, place the prepared chicken and pop it in for one hour or until juices run clear.

Et voila!