Amanda, nothing easier than roasting a chicken. Barbara Kafka's high heat method is the one that I use, because it is quick and produces a wonderfully moist bird. But you can also roast at a lower temperature , it will just take longer.

Ann

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Simplest Roast chicken
======================

Copied directly from Barbara Kafka's "Roasting, A simple Art" Cookbook.

5- to 6-pound chicken, wing tips removed
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
I lemon, halved
4 whole garlic cloves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter,
1 cup Basic Chicken Stock or canned,
water. Fruit juice. or wine for
optional deglazing.

Kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 500F
TOTAL

Roasting time
50 ~ 60
minutes

Simplest Roast Chicken

Serves 2 to 4

Here it is, the recipe that started the book. If there is no lemon, garlic, or butter on hand, roast the chicken without them. Or play. Use peeled shallots or a small onion, quartered. Add some leaves from the top of a bunch of celery, a couple of sage leaves, or a Bay leaf. Try a few juice orange or blood orange wedges.

Vary the deglazing liquid to change the flavor of the gravy or to match what's in the bird. Basic Chicken Stock-or canned-is the starting point, but use part wine-whatever is left over, red or white-or a little vermouth. Make one third of the liquid orange juice if oranges are in the bird. This is not astrophysics. Have fun.

Place rack on second level from bottom of oven. heat oven to 500°E

Remove the fat from the tail and crop end of the chicken. Freeze the neck and giblets for Basic Chicken Stock. Reserve chicken livers 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 x 8 x I 1/2-inch roasting pan breast side up. Put in the oven legs first and roast 50 to 60 minutes, or until the juices run clear. Alter the first 10 minutes, move the chicken with a wooden 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, tilt it over the roasting pan so that all the juices run out and into the pan.

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 sauce boat.

This is Kevin's favorite roasted chicken recipe, and we tend to make it on the barbeque, but you can roast it in the oven like Annie does. We always check it with a meat thermometer. You can omit some of the herbs/spices, but garlic butter is really good when shoved under the skin of the breast.

UL

The best roast chicken I've ever tasted - Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Chicken...to die for.

Perfect Roast: Cook Time: 1 hr 30 min
8 servings 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken

Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.
Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

I make mine very similar to Ina's and it is 100% foolproof. Turn the oven on to preheat to 350 degrees. Rinse the bird inside and out and remove the pin feathers (this should be standard in every single recipe you look at). Salt and pepper the inside, and put whatever aromatics you like inside. I've used lemon, garlic, rosemary, thyme, etc. whatever I have on hand that sounds good to me. Pour about a Tbsp of kosher salt into your hand and sprinkle it liberally all over the outside of the bird. No additional fat is needed! Put the veggies to be roasted in the roasting pan - I usually use a few carrots, several onions, parsnips, etc - again whatever I am inthe mood for - then place the bird on top. Roast it for 20 min per lb. and it will come out perfect!

The only caution I have is when removing the chicken to the carving board or platter, be careful not to knock all the salt off the skin and into the veggies. That would make them too salty.

Alexa

I suggest the simplest...at least for the first time.
Rinse the chicken and plop it in a roasting pan....with or without a lid.
Now think of all the things you could sprinkle on top or rub in.....they include. Steak seasoning mix, poultry seasonings, onion, lemon, soy sauce, garlic soy sauce BBQ sauce terayaki....the list is endless. You could sprinkle or rub something on top and/or put something inside the bird.
then put it into the oven....you could cook it at 325 or at 500....or anything inbetween...just remember, the hotter the oven the faster it will cook and it cooks even faster in a dark pan with a lid.
Remove from the oven when the temperature in the thigh measure 165....and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
It's not hard! Let your creativity shine!
Linda C

I like the high heat method and I also like Ina's recipe. Both are very good. But Linda is right in cooking to 165 and resting - a meat them. is one of your best friends in the kitchen.

I love roasted chicken!

I just want to mention I tried the high heat chicken 500 deg. after reading here. It was without doubt delicious but be prepared to clean up the oven mess.

I'm sure those techniques are delicious, but ever since I ran across Marcella Hazan's recipe for chickens with two lemons inside, that's the only way I've been roasting chickens. Foolproof and delicious. It's from Marcella Hazan's 'Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking'. IMO this recipe alone is worth the price of the book, along with her recipe for Pork Loin braised in Milk.

If this were a still life its title could be "Chicken with Two Lemons." That is all that there is in it. No fat to cook with, no basting to do, no stuffing to prepare, no condiments except for salt and pepper. After you put the chicken in the oven you turn it just once. The bird, its two lemons, and the oven do all the rest. Again and again, through the years, I met people who come up to me to say, "I have made your chicken with two lemons and it is the most amazingly simple recipe, the juiciest, best-tasting chicken I have ever had." And you know, it is perfectly true.
For 4 servings
Ingredients
# A 3- to 4-pound chicken
# Salt
# Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
# 2 rather small lemons
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels.
3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity.
4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement.
5. Place both lemons in the birds cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but dont make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin.
6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected.
7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. There is no need to turn the chicken again.
8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt.
Ahead-of-time note: If you want to eat it while it is warm, plan to have it the moment it comes out of the oven. If there are leftovers, they will be very tasty cold, kept moist with some of the cooking juices and eaten not straight out of the refrigerator, but at room temperature.

Amanda, you've gotten all kinds of ways here to roast chicken, I like them all. Lars Algerian chicken is one of my favorites and I wouldn't turn down any of the others either.

Now, as for those roasted vegetables, I roast mine about half an hour to 45 minues depending on the heat of the oven, the size of the vegetables and the type. Sweet potatoes and winter squashes cook more quickly than parsnips and white potatoes, asparagus roasts very quickly, onions a bit less quickly.

I wouldn't add the vegetables until the chicken was partially cooked, I'd give them 45 minutes max or they could be overdone, which makes them kind of hard and crusty. Plus, if you're doing the vegetables in the same pan as the chicken, it gives you a chance to get some of those juices cooked down, so your vegetables aren't just simmering in all those juices at first.

Annie

I have a Spanek vertical roaster. It is like a metal tube with a base that the bird sits on it the roasting pan. Because the metal tube goes through the chicken it roasts faster and sears.
I really like it because all the fat drips down.

Thanks y'all! I'm excited to try this tomorrow evening. I'll let you know how it goes.

BTW, Lars, your grand nephew turned 1 today and is having carrot cake tomorrow!

~Amanda

Oh, Amanda, that sweet faced baby boy couldn't possibly be ONE already, could he?

OK, so I want "cake on the face" pictures....

Annie

I used the Marcella Hazan version that Arley posted and the chicken was delicious. The moistest bird I've ever eaten. I put some rosemary in with the lemon and the flavor was great. The bird swelled and burst the skin, but that's okay! My sister is the only one who eats the skin and she said she'd like some fat rubbed on the bird next time--but she also said it was the best chicken she's ever had. I roasted parsnips, carrots and cauliflower separately and served rice w/ mixed veggies from the stovetop. It's the middle of finals and it was nice to eat a decent meal.

Amon is a neat eater and so there are no smashed cake photos. We put the whole cake in front of him and he just gingerly touched it with his finger tips. He was really chill about eating it, too. He ate a few bites and then was "done." More sugar than he's ever had in his life and his reaction was pretty anti-climatic. I'm glad, though. He's still happiest with beets, scramble eggs and/or carrots. :) I hope it lasts.

Our neighbor (who babysits!) made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for Amon's birthday.

Amon isn't terribly jazzed by the cake.

Sorry I missed Amon's birthday, but it's now firmly implanted in my mind. My boss's birthday was December 8, and I made her a lime pie, which she loved, and she's not easy to please. I'll be able to remember that Amon's BD is three days after hers.

BTW, I was very neat with BD cake on my first birthday. Karen opened all my presents that day.

Lars

Amanda, I'm a little slow...I'm sure I remember you now from Moe's Bar?? Nothing like a good roasted chicken, I like the high heat method and if you have a grill try some Beer Butt Chicken. If nothing else it is a hoot and people get a kick out of it...it's pretty darn good too!

Happy Birthday to your little one....great pics!

David

Hi David! That's me you remember, although a little more grown up, what with the kid and all. :) I will have to do the beer butt chicken when I get a chance. I'll have to wait until the spring because I'm in Baltimore now, and actually experience winter. (Which I like, mostly.)

~Amanda