Whenever I am entertaining or am planning a nice meal, I have a toolbox of go-to recipes. One of my favorites is roast chicken. Roasting a chicken is amazingly easy and effortless and with a few important tips I have picked up along the way and the addition of my favorite herb combination, I can get it perfect almost every time. (I say almost because lets be honest, there are just some bad days…)
1. Be very liberal with your coatings. I apply at least 1/4 cup of olive oil to the outside of the chicken. Further more, I make sure I have plenty of herbs, garlic, and lemon- I love the lemon because it makes the chicken a lighter flavor (perfect for spring/summer.)
2. You may be wondering why I call this chicken S&G. I can assure you that does not mean salt and garlic (yikes- vampire chicken?) Instead, when it comes to chicken, I stand by a couple of my favorite men- Simon and Garfunkel playing Scarborough Fair (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme.) I think this all started with a Thanksgiving meal when my family was joking about it with turkey. I loved the flavor combination so much that it became standard with my chicken.
On top of that, add a little lemon zest/garlic and you have yourself one tasty chicken.
3. Be sure to tuck your wings under the bird and tie the legs together with kitchen twine so that they stay close to the main section. This prevents the smaller sections cooking faster than the rest of the bird. This I learned from watching a lot of Ina Garten (see, it pays to watch tv!)
4. Let the meat rest after you pull it out of the oven. While cooking, all the liquid inside the meat tries so hard to escape (see the juices in the bottom of your pan?) By letting the meat rest for 10-15 minutes after you pull it out of the oven, this allows the juices to disperse back into the meat. Cutting to early will leave some parts of your meat dry. (This can be transferred beyond roast chicken!)
Finally, my general rule of thumb is I have the best luck roasting my chicken at 375˚ for about 18 minutes per pound with a few extra minutes at the end. I use to live by the school of 350˚ and for every pound, you cook the chicken 20 minutes with an extra 15 tacked onto the end but I never got that nice golden color. By cooking the chicken at a slightly higher temp, the chicken gets that nice color. There are also recipes that call for cooking it higher and the reducing the temperature to get the same effect. I suggest looking up recipes and find what works for you the best!
ShareThis
