The Best Roast Chicken is A Simple Roast Chicken
Here’s a super-reliable roast chicken recipe for juicy meat and crispy skin. This roast chicken recipe is as simple as it gets.
How simple? Dry the chicken. Season generously with salt and pepper, then roast it in a super hot oven. It’s that simple and it’s delicious.
Always start by getting your oven hot – turn to 450 degrees and take the chicken out of the refrigerator or package. Give yourself time to bring the chicken to room temperature (30 minutes or so) before preparing the chicken and placing in the oven. Take this time to lay out your paper towels, place your salt and pepper into a bowl or dish and get some soap ready to wash your hands after prepping the chicken.
Dry heat is key to this tasty roast chicken
No need to wash the chicken – for both health safety and flavor reasons we’ll skip that part, here’s why.
Any moisture will create steam in your oven, making the skin less crispy and the meat drier, so don’t place lemons, herbs, or other vegetables to the cavity of the chicken – all of these things create steam. Use a thick wad of paper towels to pat dry your chicken on the outside. Then, use another wad of paper towels, and yes sorry …. reach inside to dry the cavity – but this step is absolutely essential to maximize the taste of your chicken. Also, make sure to remove the packet of giblets.
Season generously with coarse salt and pepper. Don’t just pour salt out of a container; use your fingers to sprinkle and press the salt all over the chicken to ensure it’s coated evenly and covers all areas of the chicken.
You may add your favorite chicken spice blend – just remember the salt is the key to this recipe.
Poke a hole in the side of the chicken near the end of the chicken leg and tuck the the end of leg through – here’s a short video of this stringless truss – simple and fast.
Place the chicken breast-side up on a rack in a roasting pan. Using a rack is worth it, and ensures that your chicken cooks evenly and doesn’t stick to the pan. Now take a moment to wash your hands.
Put the pan in the heated oven and leave it alone. Practice benign neglect – set the timer and leave the oven door closed. Check the chicken at 50 to 60 minutes, depending on weight. Insert your thermometer right between the breast and the thigh; this is the thickest part of the chicken. If you cook the chicken past 165 degrees, it will start to dry out and won’t be as flavorful as it could be.
When your chicken is cooked, take it off the rack and set it on the cutting board, then wait 15 minutes before you do anything else. Letting the chicken “rest” gives the juices a chance to settle, so that they soak into your meat and flavor it, instead of just flowing out onto the cutting board. You can take this time to sprinkle on some fresh herbs.
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- Preheat the oven to 425°F - the oven needs to be fully heated.
- Dry the chicken very well with paper towels, inside and out. Moisture creates steam - the less it steams, the drier the heat, the better. Salt and pepper the cavity, then the outside of the chicken. A nice uniform coating that will result in a crisp, salty, flavorful skin (about 1 tablespoon). When it's cooked, you should still be able to make out the salt baked onto the crisp skin. Season to taste with pepper.
- Place the chicken in a roasting pan and, when the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. Don't touch it - I leave it alone—I don't baste it, I don't add butter; you can if you wish, but I feel this creates steam, which I don't want. Roast it until it's done, about 75 minutes.
- Remove it from the oven and add the thyme or rosemary i you'd like to the pan. Baste the chicken with the juices and thyme and let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.
- Cut the breast down the middle and serve it on the bone.