Roast Chicken

Appears in
Cooking
Cooking

By James Peterson

Published 2007

  • About
Inexplicably, roasting a chicken intimidates even experienced cooks, which is strange only because it is almost impossible to go wrong. If you overcook your chicken, the breast meat will be a little dry and if your oven isn’t hot enough initially the skin may not brown, but in either case your chicken will still be perfectly delicious. Here are some tips that guarantee a perfectly roasted chicken:

  1. START THE CHICKEN IN A VERY HOT OVEN.

    This ensures that the chicken will brown. If it starts to get too brown, you can always turn the oven down, but if the bird starts out in too low an oven, it may not brown by the time it cooks through.

  2. ROAST THE CHICKEN IN A HEAVY-BOTTOMED VESSEL AS CLOSE TO THE SIZE OF THE CHICKEN AS POSSIBLE.

    Cast-iron skillets are often just the right size. Spread the giblets around the chicken so there is no space in the pan that is not covered. This prevents the juices from the chicken from burning on the pan bottom.

  3. DON’T USE A ROASTING RACK.

    A rack keeps the chicken above the roasting pan. The roasting pan gets very hot, and as the juices from the chicken drip down onto it, they burn and smoke up the kitchen.

  4. TRUSS THE BIRD.

    For even cooking and a prettier finished bird, truss the chicken as shown. Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes, covered loosely with aluminum foil, before serving. This allows the heat to continue to penetrate to the inside of the chicken and leaves it cooked more evenly.

  5. COVER THE BREAST WITH ALUMINUM FOIL.

    There is the inherent problem of the breasts cooking faster than the thighs, so they dry out by the time the thighs are done. Fold a sheet of foil into a triple-thick layer, butter one side, and use it to cover the breast meat for the first 20 to 30 minutes of roasting, to slow down the cooking of the breast meat.