Ina Garten's perfect roast chicken-PERFECTION

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franinva

Active member
I know there was a roast chicken discussion last week but I made this over the weekend and it is beyond delicious!!!!You must try. Amazing flavor and the vegetables so tasty. I was literally eating it with my hands and could hardly leave it alone before I served it! I also tossed some whole garlic cloves in with the vegetables.

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs

1 lemon, halved

1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted

1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced

4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks

1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

 
This is very similar to the way Gretchen suggested doing chicken. She also

thick slices potatoes for underneath. This way and on the rotisserie are my 2 standards now.

 
This is a Provencal method of roasting chicken. However, I find that a bit of white

wine in the roasting pan flavours everything in the house to perfection. I've been doing lots of messing around with this method lately and it is our favourite just a little ahead of spatchcock.

I really jam the cavity with all kinds of fresh herbs, depending on what's available. And fresh bay leaf essential, inside 2 and in the pan another 2.

Recently, I have been experimenting with searing the chicken in butter in the same pan. This takes about 4 T. butter. All sides. I sue no oil. It's working very well. I stuff it first with the herbs, then sear it, using tongs to turn it, then put it on a little rack in the roasting pan to keep its backside out of the juices and wine.

I also don't use lemon and garlic. We like Marcella's version of roast chicken with a whole lemon, garlic and rosemary branches inside, but not for this one.

The other thing we've been doing lately is taking the entire breast off in one piece and serving it (meat only) whole. It gets dry much less readily this way.

We are finally getting better quality chickens easily here so this is on the menu every 2 weeks.

 
To baste or not to baste? I always turn and baste roast chicken, but recipes like this one don't

say to baste. I hate to have dried-out breast meat.

What do you all do?

 
I tried that method for awhile. Found that it was okay for a large chicken but

didn't make a lot of difference for the size that the 2 of us eat. Also with this new method of searing it, the meat is soooo juicy. I also cooke them for only about 1 - 1 1/4 hours. I guess they would be just under 3 pounders.

 
I baste if I remember but I never turn. Roast chicken seems to me an essentially

simple dish, perfect in its simplicity, and all that turning this way and that way and timing and basting every 7 minutes, well, it just takes all the beautiful simplicity out of it. (Someone famous said the same thing, but I can't remember who.)

 
This my favorite too!

I tried the CI "chicken in a pot" and decided to go back to this one.

I've also taken a bit of garlic and butter mixed together and spread under the skin to keep it a bit more moist.

 
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