I think, very truthfully, that I could put a ring on the nearest finger of a good roast chicken. There's a restaurant here in town called Rei Dos Leitoes that specializes in pork yet does some of the most amazing chicken I've ever had. The sauce is the rendered fat mixed with piri piri.
Unbelievable.
Roast chicken epitomizes everything I love about good food. It's simple (on paper) yet complex enough that it'll challenge any cook's ingenuity in the making of it. You're looking for tender moist meat and brown crispy skin, not some limpid discoloured latex covering a dried out piece of styrofoam.
(a caveat: you must understand - I've only had a passing glimpse at what the experts are doing these days, and I certainly am not there yet, but good Lord - chicken doesn't need a physics degree for us lowly plebes to ingest and enjoy.)
Preheat an oven to 425F.
Buy yourself a free-range, grain-fed boiler-fryer (so named for it's size, somewhere between 3-5 pounds) and fast for half a day. Not only will it be spiritually beneficial, it'll put you in the proper receptive mindset.
Rub your bird down (minds out of the gutter, children) with plenty of salt. Bring it to room temperature (taking it out of the fridge for around two to three hours) and calmly squash your impulse to tell the nearest health inspector about your actions. I know, I know, you're not supposed to do stuff like that, but bringing the bird to room temp ensures a faster cooking process, such that it doesn't spend as much time in an oven drying out as it normally would going in cold.
A little trick my mother taught me is to stuff raw garlic cloves under the skin on the breast. Quite frankly, I don't know why more people don't do this. You can also stuff fresh herbs under there, as well as butter, duck fat, or any and/or all. You can also fire a halved lemon in the cavity with some other fresh herbs, as they'll steam and perfume the meat internally. Never stuff a bird with anything you intend on eating afterwards. In order for it to be safely consumed, that stuffing has to be cooked to at least 165F, leaving the surrounding meat drier than a popcorn fart. You want stuffing? Make it on the side, and stir the roasting pan juices into it after the fact.
Thomas Keller says it's important to truss the bird and I believe him. Here's a basic tutorial. It ain't me, if you were wondering. Place your bird in the oven and roast to 155F internally. It should take roughly an hour or so, but check it after 45 minutes to see where it's at - and don't worry about basting it. It doesn't work. Chicken skin is waterproof, so whatever you try to baste it with just slides right off, and on top of that, it's a timewasting activity. Take out once it's done, tent it loosely with foil and let it rest for roughly thirty minutes if at all possible, or fifteen minutes at the very least. In that time, carry-over cooking will raise the temperature to 165F, at which point, all worries of salmonella poisoning disappear.
To carve? Well, I take the breasts off the bird whole by cutting down the sternum and off the wishbone, then simply slicing across them thinly, and the gams? I tend to shred them by hand, as leg meat does not carve supermodellishly,
I dunno what you're serving with your bird, but I make a simple pan gravy (deglaze the roasting pan with chicken stock, reduce it till it tastes delicious and thickens noticably, seasoning with salt and a touch of balancing honey), put out the sides, as well as a crock of a particularly nice Dijon mustard. then rub the meat down with a bit of warm butter, et voila!
All together now - Amen.
luv,
s
