The Easiest Impressive Thing You Can Cook in a Kitchen: Roast Chicken

[Note: This is arguably not the most impressive thing you can cook in the kitchen, but it is the easiest impressive thing you can cook in a kitchen, and takes less skill than required to boil an egg].

Eager to impress a date?

Trying to prove to your mom you are perfectly capable of keeping yourself alive, and that no, you don't subsist on ramen and Kraft mac & cheese?

Embarrassed that the friendly staff at Chick-Fil-A knows you by name?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you'll want to roast a chicken.  Now, this is bare bones here.  There are a million ways to skin this chicken, so to speak, and we can get to that later.  For right now, here's what you'll need:

INGREDIENTS:	SUPPLIES:
A whole chicken.  3-4 lbs, preferably one that was treated well during its lifetime.  If it ate well and roamed around, you will taste it.  Ask your butcher for advice if you need it – they love to help.	An oven.
[insert fruit or vegetable here].  This is a wildcard.  You may stuff the chicken with a halved lemon, apple, or onion.  Pick whatever you like – it just keeps the chicken nice and moist.	An oven-safe pan large enough to fit the chicken.  For example: a cast-iron skillet, a roasting pan, a cookie sheet, or that pan you cook brownies in.
Optional: carrots, celery, or diced potatoes.  I like to set the bird on top of a layers of vegetables so it doesn’t stew in its own juices.

Set your oven to 425F.  Make sure there's nothing in the bird (sometimes butchers store a bag of giblets there).  Halve a lemon (or other fruit or vegetable) and stuff it in the bird.  Sprinkle the chicken with a tablespoon of kosher salt; this will help develop nice, crisp skin.  (You can do all of this the morning of or the night before if you want.)

Set the chicken in an oven-safe pan.  I place mine breast up, but it really doesn't matter.  Put the pan in the oven and walk away.  That's right, just walk away.  Your work is done here.  Come back in an hour and remove the pan from the oven.  Let the chicken hang out for 15 minutes before carving (it will be difficult, but fight the urge to dig in right away; this will be the key to your success).   THE END.  For real.

Do this and you will succeed where Cher of Clueless fame did not (remember the log of cookie dough incident?), for now your house will be filled with the rich, warm, and impressive smell of a home-cooked meal.  If you're not sure how to carve a chicken, there are many step-by-step videos on YouTube.  The bird will be so juicy, however, that you can easily pick the meat off with your fingers.

Comments

[Beth]

You are the best Kathryn!!! I love reading your posts! Hope you are having a wonderful summer. Love, Beth

[Anne Faulkner]

What a timely post! bought a whole springer mountain chicken at kroger last week and stuck it in the freezer while I worked up the courage to do something with it (still a little intimidated by the "whole bird" experience). Im pulling it out right now and going to tackle that bored tomorrow night thanks to your encouragement. I can do this, right?

[Kathryn]

@Anne: Totally! Let me know how it goes!

[Lisa]

It's November, which means it's officially yummy-smells-in-the-kitchen season. No more rotisserie birds! We are doing this tonight!! :)