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Simplest Roast Chicken

Source of Recipe

From "Food52: Genius Recipes" by Kristen Miglore


Recipe Introduction

"The juiciest, speediest, most bewitchingly golden roast chicken also happens to be the one with the recipe you can remember without googling. Just 10 minutes a pound at 500° F. That's right, the whole time. Today, it seems we want most everything singed and caramelized at 450° F or higher, but in 1995 when Barbara Kafka wrote Roasting: A Simple Art, people were suspicious. Fewer foods were roasted then, and when they were, the standard oven temperatures ran 100° F cooler. Kafka changed that. For a while, her high-heat roast chicken was all the rage, but inevitably other techniques caught our attention—spatchcocking! vertical roasting! wet brining! dry brining!—and we moved on. For our any-night roast chicken, I recommend we briefly return to 1995. Why? Because there's no basting and no trussing. You needn't remember to turn the heat up or down after so many minutes; nor flip the creature awkwardly halfway through. There's no snipping of spines or slashing of limbs; no stuffing butter deep into loose corners of skin. Just be sure to put it in the oven bum-first, so the slower-cooking legs are nearer the heat at the back of the oven. That's about it. As Kafka says: 'If there is no lemon, garlic, or butter on hand, roast the chicken without them. Or play.'"

List of Ingredients

â—¦ One 5- to 6-pound chicken, wing tips removed, brought to room temperature, if possible
â—¦ 1 lemon, halved (optional)
â—¦ 4 cloves garlic (optional)
â—¦ ¼ cup unsalted butter (optional)
â—¦ Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
â—¦ 1 cup chicken stock, water, fruit juice, or wine for optional deglazing


Recipe

Preheat a regular oven to 500° F or a convection oven to 450° F. Place an oven rack on the second level from the bottom of the oven.

Remove the fat from the tail and crop ends of the chicken. Freeze the neck and giblets for stock. Reserve the chicken liver for another use. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the lemon, garlic, and butter, if using. Season the cavity and skin with salt and pepper.

Place the chicken in a 12 by 8 by 1 ½-inch roasting pan breast side up. Put into the oven legs first and roast for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the juices run clear. After the first 10 minutes, move the chicken with a wooden spoon or spatula to keep it from sticking.

Remove the chicken to a platter by placing a large wooden spoon into the tail end and balancing the chicken with a kitchen spoon pressed against the crop end. As you lift the chicken, carefully tilt it over the roasting pan so that all the juices run out and into the pan.

To make a sauce from the pan juices, if one is desired, pour off or spoon out excess fat from the roasting pan and put the roasting pan on top of the stove. Add the stock or other liquid and bring the contents of the pan to a boil while scraping the bottom vigorously with a wooden spoon. Let reduce by half. Serve the sauce over the chicken or, for crisp skin, in a sauceboat.

Serves 2 to 4






✰ Genius Tip:

The single complaint I've heard about this recipe is that there can be too much spattering or smoke. Kafka advises (temporarily) unplugging your smoke detector and setting your oven to self-clean before bed. But another solution is to add roughly chopped potatoes or other hardy vegetables to the pan—they'll absorb the delicious juices from the chicken and keep them from spluttering. Stir them once or twice through or crisped enough when the chicken is done, simply return the pan to the oven (sans chicken) until they are, decreasing the temperature as needed.