Perfect Easy Roast Chicken

Need a recipe for perfect, crisp-skinned, delicious roast chicken that’s about as quick and easy as picking up a rotisserie bird at the supermarket and tastes a whole lot better? This is for you.

Our recipe uses Judy Rodger’s classic Zuni Café Roast Chicken recipe as a jumping off point, and then simplifies, streamlines and tweaks it quite a bit. It’s what we do when we that incredible, succulent bird but we didn’t think ahead to buy, salt, air-dry and bring the chicken to room temperature. It also has the advantage of no basting (like the Judy bird) and no flipping during roasting (unlike the Judy bird).

[Read: No flipping, no basting, no advance prep: Meet the perfect, easy (crispy-skinned!) roast chicken.]

Part of the work is done before you bring the chicken home: A great roast starts with an excellent bird, and not too big. We like organic, free-range birds best; if you can get one raised on a local farm, so much the better. Try to find one as close to 3 or 3 1/2 pounds as possible. If you have a convection setting on your oven, you can use that for the first 30 minutes: It speeds up the roasting a bit and enhances the browning. If you don’t have it, don’t worry — it’ll work just fine.

While this recipe is very easy, if you want to simplify even further, you can skip the herbs under the skin; you’ll only sacrifice a little flavor. A whole lemon in the cavity can be nice if you fancy lemony flavor, or rub the round end of a baguette with a lot of garlic and stuff that in there, as my French mother-in-law does. (And then everyone fights over who gets to eat the intensely chickeny-and-garlicky “quignon.”)

Likewise, I think it’s always worth making a little pan sauce to serve with the chicken, as it’s thrown together as the chicken rests. The only effort there is mincing a shallot, but you can even skip that. Or skip the sauce completely.

Serves 3 - 4.

Ingredients

For the chicken

A 3 to 3 1/2-pound chicken

Salt and freshly ground pepper

6 to 12 springs of thyme and/or rosemary

For the OPTIONAL pan sauce

1 large or 2 small shallots, minced (optional)

A few sprigs of thyme (optional)

1/2 cup of red or white wine, or dry white vermouth, or water

1/3 cup of chicken broth

1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 450 F. using convection (if you have it; otherwise don’t worry), with the rack in the middle of the oven. Remove the chicken from the fridge an hour or 30 minutes before you’re going to roast — if you think of it. Otherwise, don’t worry. 

2. Rinse the inside of the chicken, removing the bag with the neck and organs (if there’s one). Rinse it and use paper towels to dry it thoroughly inside and out. Sprinkle about ¼ teaspoon of salt on the inside of the cavity. 

3. If you’d like to tuck some herbs between the skin and the flesh, run your finger under the skin on the breasts to separate it from the flesh, and do the same with the legs and thighs, careful not to tear the skin. Push a sprig or two of thyme and/or rosemary under the skin to sit on each leg, another on each thigh, and a couple on each side of the breast. (You don’t have to do this, but it’s nice, and the payoff in flavor is worth it.) Now pat the outside of the bird dry again, and generously salt it all over, then scatter freshly ground black pepper over all.

4. Place a 10- or 12-inch skillet with an ovenproof handle (all-metal) on top of the stove on high heat and let it get hot. Set the chicken breast-up on the pan — be warned, it will make a terribly, loud farting sound! Then immediately put the skillet with the chicken in the oven. Listen to the chicken: It should be making sizzling noises. If not, turn the heat up to 475. If it is making sizzling noises, take a peek inside — if it’s smoking, turn the oven down to 425.

5. If you’re using convection, roast the chicken for 30 minutes, then switch off the convection. Otherwise roast the chicken for 45 minutes, and then begin checking for doneness. The chicken is done when an instant-read thermometer inserted close to the drumstick bone on the thick part of the drumstick reads 165 degrees. Depending on the size of the bird and the heat in the oven, it will take between 45 and 70 minutes. Being sure to use an oven mitt on the handle from this point on, remove the skillet from the oven, transfer the chicken to a cutting board to rest, and make the pan sauce (if desired).

6. To make the pan sauce: Pour out and discard all but about a tablespoon of the fat in the skillet (there probably won’t be much more than that). Set the pan on a burner over medium-low heat, add the shallots (if using) and the thyme (if using) and cook, stirring now and then so the shallots don’t brown, until the shallots translucent and soft, 5 or 6 minutes. (If you don’t have a shallot, just cook the thyme two or three minutes; if you don’t have either shallot or thyme, proceed to the next step.)

7. Pour in the wine or water, turn the heat to high and cook, using a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits clinging to the pan, until the liquid has reduced by about half, two or three minutes. Add the chicken broth, along with any juices that have spilled onto the cutting board from the bird, and continue cooking until the sauce is reduced to a nice thickness, another three minutes or so. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as necessary. Turn off the heat and set aside while you carve the bird.

8. After the chicken is carved, reheat the sauce, adding a little water or broth if it thickened too much, then whisk in the bits of butter, if using. Pour the sauce, straining it if you like (but it’s not necessary) into a sauceboat or small pitcher. Serve the chicken with the sauce passed around at the table.