Roast to Perfection
I hate those recipe blogs where you have to scroll forever to find how to make the thing in the picture, so here’s the recipe up front and you can decide whether to stay for the rest.
Ingredients
1 Whole Chicken, thawed
2 tbsp of lard, or other high smoke point oil of your choice
Salt, pepper, and other seasonings of your choice
Procedure
Place a cast iron skillet or dutch oven in your oven with lard or oil, and preheat to 450°F (230°C).
While the pan is heating, pat dry your chicken and season liberally.
Place chicken directly on the preheated pan, roast at 450 for 15 minutes
Reduce oven temperature to 350°F(175°C) roast for approximately 45 more minutes.
Chicken is done when juices run clear and thigh meat is between 155-165°F(68-73°C). Serve with mashed potatoes and fresh baked bread for maximum happiness.
Physicists will have to perform the necessary conversions if they want temperatures given in Kelvin.
“What am I supposed to do with A Whole Chicken?”
I get this question frequently during Farmers’ Market season. While there are many snarky answers that run through my head when asked, the truth is I can understand the hesitation. There might be whole chickens available in the supermarket, but if you ever decide to snoop while grocery shopping, you’ll notice any given person’s cart has either boneless, skinless breasts; no chicken at all; or wings. It seems like the only time you see a whole chicken is when it’s already been cooked in the store rotisserie. A whole, frozen, uncooked bird is a rare sight indeed.
(The businessperson in me wants to interject here that we do, in fact, also offer those individual chicken parts at market)
When faced with the abundance of an entire chicken, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. We’re just not used to thinking about how to manage abundance.
Now, I could respond to the question by giving detailed instructions on how to take a whole chicken and turn it into the assortment of cuts found at the grocery store. Or I could suggest one of many more involved recipes I have in rotation. Perhaps channel the 2nd pilot episode of The French Chef and try to make Coq au Vin sound like an effortless affair easily accomplished in half an hour and not a multi-day process. Or better yet, why not explain how this one bird can be turned into two, three, or even more distinct meals with careful preparation?
All of these are reasonable paths, and in the coming weeks this blog will tackle each of them in turn. But if the goal is to overcome hesitation regarding what to do with an entire chicken, I think the first step is to make it as simple as possible. For my money, there’s nothing simpler than this roast chicken recipe. Not only can I easily remember and recite it to the inquisitve customer, but that customer can remember it, too. I know, because I’ve had more than one come back to me a week later telling me they cooked their chicken like I said and it came out perfectly.
Of course, when I recite this recipe, I also plant seeds for the other possibilities created by the decision to buy the whole bird. “If you have leftover meat, you can add some taco seasoning and have fajitas the next night.” “Once you’ve pulled all the meat off it, you can pop the carcass in a pot with some veggie scraps and some spices and get the best stock or broth you’ve ever tasted. It’s even quicker in an Instant Pot.” “If you really want to get fancy, spatchcock and marinate it and try it on the grill.” Chances are they won’t do any of these things the first time. But once they’ve conquered the task the first time and are confident they can roast a chicken, they’ll come back the next time and ask about those other suggestions I made.
A little salt, a little pepper, a dab of lard, and before you know it a whole chicken is transformed from being a daunting prospect, to being a simple, effortlessly delicious meal.
