Last month I got an email from Vic Matus, deputy editor of The Washington Free Beacon and author of the book Vodka, asking to discuss my book From Scratch, especially in light of the fact that everyone is cooking more in quarantine. He decided to roast a chicken and write about it. When he called afterward to discuss it and the book, he was astonished how easy roasting a chicken is. He even made the overnight stock.
How did we ever get to the point where we thought roasting a chicken was difficult?
In my book, I look at 10 staple meals and show all the things that you can make if you know how to make that one meal. I thought now would be a good time to look at this iconic home meal, the roast chicken, and all that it leads to.
How to make a simple pan sauce after it's roasted. How to make gravy (and how to make beurre manié to thicken it with) or an elegant tarrargon sauce or sauce fines herbes. If you want to learn to truss the chicken for better cooking and appearance, now's the time! (Here's a great video of Chef Brian teaching it.) And, of course, chicken stock, that wonder of a byproduct. We think of stock making as a "project," but it needn't be--put your chicken carcass in a 2 liter pan with two carrot and a halved onion, cover with water and put the pan uncovered in a 180˚F to 200˚F for 8 hours. (Vic was nervous about leaving oven on while he slept. Now that we're home all day, you can refrigerate your carcass and make the stock the next day.)
A roast chicken teaches you variations, that you can add jalepenos and lemon and garlic to your pan; or you can spatchcock it and roast it that way. Learn to make a salsa verde to go with it. Learn different ways to use the leftover meat, in a soup, in a pot pie, how to make a simple 3:2:1 crust for that pie. And if you like to have fun in the kitchen, learn how to turn that easy, overnight chicken stock into crystal clear consommé.
How to make the simple pan jus or gravy: while the chicken rests, throw a handful of thinly sliced onions and carrot ribbons (a whole carrot cut with a peeler, in the pan with all the chicken fat and fond. Cook till soft, add a cup of wine and boil till the wine is gone. Add a cup of water and boil that till it's all gone. Add another cup of water and reduce by a third. Done. Strain or simply spoon over the cut chicken. Full recipe is in From Scratch.
Watch a quick video here.
One of the great things about roasting a chicken, which people don't even think about, is how it fills the home with such comforting aromas. The smells of cooking help to relax us. That's never been more important than now in these, the most trying times for our nation in my lifetime, and my parents' life time, since the Great Depression and WWII.
Stay safe, stay healthy.
Ruhlman's Roast Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 3 to 4 pound chicken
- coarse kosher salt as needed (about a tablespoon)
- 1 lemon (optional, if you aren't trussing the chicken)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450˚F (or 425 if it's dirty as it will smoke).
- Either truss your chicken (see video link) or put the lemon in the cavity.
- Salt the chicken so that it has a nice coating all over (be generous).
- Put the chicken in an ovenproof skillet and put it in the oven for 60 minutes.
- Remove the chicken and let it rest for 15 to 30 minutes.
- Devour.
Really one of the most simple things you can do in the kitchen and so satisfying.
If you don't have a cast iron pan (what?), this is why you need one.
the nytimes cooking site recommended roasting a chicken in such a skillet saying that dish alone was worth getting one.
I only roast chicken in cast iron. More often than not I do rib eye in cast iron from start to finish. Even when I grill steaks on my Traeger, I finish them in cast iron.
I think finishing a steak in a cast iron pan would enhance the smokey grill flavor. Great idea.
As an amateur home cook I've got more cast iron than I can store under the oven. Once friends and relatives know cooking a my hobby I end up with all sorts of cast iron. One of my best pans came from a field in a farm. I cleaned off the rust and it's great. My best cast iron is a 14" I inherited from my grandmother (who had 8 kids). Indispensable for chicken wings. Lots of space to keep protein from steaming.
good for you on all counts. the pan in my photo was found at junk yard outside, pitted and uniformly rusted. shows what you can do.
I still make your roast chicken with rustic pan sauce years later. That sauce with the dijon is to die for.
thanks kiara, glad you like!
Where can we find the rustic dijon sauce recipe?
Deglaze the pan with white wine and stir in some dijon--it can be as simple as that.
Roast chicken #1 comfort food. What about high heat (425 degrees) for the first 15 minutes?
Mike, it's John Neumark. Love what you do. Hope you are well.
Another go to comfort food for me is a baked potato with plenty of butter, evo, reggiano, sea salt.
All the best and Go Devils!
how great to hear from you John! Yes, #1. But why reduce heat. 450 works perfectly every time. and yes on baked potato, cooked in same hot oven. key as you say is how to prepare it. I even have a "recipe" for such a potato in my last book. Stay healthy and safe!
I am making this today using your new cookbook. Thank you!
thanks!
hope you like!
I have cooked this twice and tonight will be the third time. The first time the bird was incredibly good, juicy and perfectly cooked.
Time number 2 the smallest bird I could find between the 2 local groceries was a bit over 5 pounds, tonights bird is 4.99 pounds. The second time I had to put the bird back in the oven because it was still a bit bloody between the thigh and body.
How do you adjust time for bigger birds?
Thanks for the recipe.
Yeah, that’s a big bird. You adjust exactly the way you adjusted—used your common sense. It’s cooked when you tilt the bird and the juices in the cavity are clear.
I was disappointed when I re-read this recipe in "From Scratch" because it appears to not comply with many of the rational things you write about cooking. Specifically, the cooking time assumes everyone can buy a 3-4 pound bird. The supermarkets around me have larger birds, usually 5+ pounds. So, cooking time needs to be increased for larger birds. But, more importantly, every oven is different. I have a convection oven which cooks faster than a non-convection oven. And I think that testing doneness with an instant read thermometer is a better practice that a fixed one hour.
As an aside, I roasted a 5+pound chicken last evening at 450F in a cast iron skillet which heated with the oven. Spreading the legs in the hot skillet resulted in their being done before the inner portions of the breast. I'll need to find how to have it all done at the same time in my oven with a hot skillet and room temperature bird.
Your books are great and I always learn more each time I read them. Stay well.
In the end it all comes down to common sense, which you are clearly using. No recipe can account for all variables in cooking.