roast chicken

Crispy Roast Chicken Recipe

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Chicken_getting_ready_to_roast
Santa Maria’s mother’s surgery went off without a hitch yesterday, though it took place later than anyone expected. Scheduled to start at noon, the operation didn’t get underway until about 3, which meant that Santa Maria and her father were at the hospital all day, and late into the night.

Santa Maria and I had plans to go out to dinner, but those were scratched. She and her father grabbed a quick bite near the hospital, and I ate what I would have served to him, had everything gone as planned—a simple dinner of pasta topped with Colavita (the only commercially-produced sauce I can find that doesn’t have added sugar) augmented with a bit of mozzarella. I made myself a side salad of fresh arugula, but I don’t know if her father would have wanted that.

I had these few basic ingredients (the sauce, the cheese, the greens) on hand, and it was tastier, more healthy, and faster than take-out or frozen food. Of course, only a myopic student could eat pasta every night, so spaghetti is not always the answer. And what I did with the rest of my night is testament to my belief that to eat well, all you need to do is to shop well, and to plan ahead.

In my refrigerator I happened to have a chicken and some baking potatoes. Before I went to bed last night, I took the chicken out, rinsed it, dried it, stuffed its cavity with a bit of tarragon (left over from the never-made Rose Revived Flounder), some salt, and a lemon. I washed and prepped the potatoes.

Years ago, I learned a trick from reading “D'Artagnan's Glorious Game Cookbook.” To make a roast chicken extra crispy and delicious, prep it the night before and let it sit in the refrigerator, uncovered, for at least eight hours. The skin dries out and seals in the flavors, and the bird becomes remarkably crispy after cooking.

This method not only produces a fine dinner, it is practically designed for the working home cook. Do the prep work the night before, and then pop the bird in the oven when you get home. An hour later, you’ll have dinner, without any effort.

The full, dinner-party ready recipe from D’Artagnan follows—adapt as needed to your lifestyle. I, for example, have never made this fancy recipe; I opt to dry the bird out in the roasting pan itself, so it is ready to go right in the oven when I get home. My regular recipe works quite well for me, but if you want to be bit more ambitious, try this one. I’d love to hear how it turns out.

D'Artagnan's Crispy Oven Roasted Chicken

 

  • 1 chicken, 3 lb.
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 5 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 2 tbs. unsalted butter
  • 2 carrots, coarsely chipped
  • 2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
  • 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
  • 3/4 c. white wine
  • 3/4 c. chicken stock
  • 2 tbs. chopped flat-leafed parsley

Season chicken cavity with salt and pepper, add half of the garlic and all the rosemary, and squeeze in the lemon juice. Leave squeezed lemon half inside cavity. Place chicken on a cake rack over a plate and leave uncovered in refrigerator overnight, or far at least 8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Put 1 tbs. butter in the bottom of shallow roasting pan just large enough to hold the bird. Add carrots, celery, onion, and remaining garlic. Brush remaining butter over chicken and place bird, breast up, on the vegetables, and continue roasting until chicken is done. After about an hour, pour the wine and stock over the vegetables.

Turn off oven, transfer chicken to a platter, and keep warm in oven while finishing sauce. Scrape vegetables and pan drippings into a food processor, or blender and puree until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in parsley.

Cut chicken into serving pieces and put on plate. Spoon on a small amount of sauce and pass remainder at table.

*Recipe courtesy of D'Artagnan*

Crispiest Roast Chicken Ever

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My office isn’t really an office. The days of closed doors, private spaces, a little couch and wet bar, are gone. I work in a cubicle, a narrow pen lined up beside other narrow pens containing my colleagues, their computers, and their ambitions.

The upside of this arrangement is the easy transfer of information. We can communicate without barriers (projects get completed in record time!). The downside of this arrangement is the easy transfer of information (private phone calls are no longer private).

So it is pretty much known around my office that I like to cook. Occasionally, a friend will drop by to talk about what’s going on in his or her kitchen.

The other day I heard a most fascinating tale. A friend said that she likes to make a roast chicken on a Sunday night and eat just the crispy skin for dinner. Just the skin, and all of it. She’ll tuck into it just in time for the start of “Mad Men.”

Crispy skin is, of course, the holy grail of roasting a chicken, but I’ve long given up on eating it. With two kids to feed, it’s like stop-motion animation around my house getting the food to the table. It takes forever. I’m lucky if my chicken is still hot by the time I eat it, never mind if the skin is still crispy.

Recently, my friend and I were discussing ways of roasting a bird. She was telling me that she crosses the approaches of Julia Child (“butter ‘er up, stuff ‘er with lemon and sage”) and the Parisian restaurant Chez Louis (“start at a super high heat, then lower.  Baste with broth”). I don’t have much time for such refinements. I have only one trick to making a chicken-skin crispy, and it’s a sure fire one. I use it every time. I learned it from reading “D'Artagnan's Glorious Game Cookbook.” (D'artagnan, by the way, is a fantastic supplier of everything from chickens to the fanciest of wild game birds. You can learn more here.)

I told her to put the chicken in the roasting pan the morning before cooking and let it sit, uncovered, in the refrigerator before roasting it at a high heat, about 450 degrees. The skin dries out (“desiccated,” was her apt and wild-eyed description this morning when she stopped by to tell me it was “the best chicken ever”) and the skin gets wicked crispy. You can’t lose.

My favorite roast-chicken recipe is here.