Roast Chicken

I made The Best Roast Chicken last night.

I've always read that "they", whomever "they" are, say that you can always tell a good cook by their roast chicken. The fact that Anthony Bourdain mentions in his trip to Las Vegas to head to Thomas Keller's Bouchon that they specifically try to roast chicken to see how it is lends some credence to this statement.

I purchased Jacques Pepin's Chez Jacques cookbook a few months ago, but haven't really had the opportunity to make anything out of it beyond pureeing basil and freezing it to avoid always throwing it away.

Jacques' chicken is amazingly easy:

0. Preheat oven to 425. I think that only weird developers start with zero in a list, but this is less of a step and more of an oven dial twist, right?

1. Wash the bird -- From Jacques and Julia: Cooking at Home dvds, I know that Jacques does not wash his chicken. He specifically told Julia that the heat of cooking kills the bacteria, and if they happen to survive that then they deserve to survive! However, I like to wash the bird.

2. Salt and pepper the bird -- I used grey salt and freshly ground pepper. As an aside, I've only recently started using the crappy pepper mill we have because everyone always says how great it is when it's fresh. Thousands of chefs can't be wrong. However, my pepper mill appears to really be cheap and nasty so I think we will have to invest in a new one. I think this one was like $2 though, so it's not like I have already invested anything in it.

3. Place chicken on its side so that one leg is facing up in a roasting pan. Set timer for 20 minutes. -- Jacques says that he likes to do this side cooking first because the legs take the longest to cook.

4. Take chicken out and flip it onto its other side. Set timer for 20 minutes.

5. Take chicken out and lay it on its back -- It's at this point that I put in the meat thermometer. 165 for dark meat or 160 for breast meat. It's supposed to take an hour for a 3 1/2 lb chicken.

6. Let chicken cook until temp is reached. Remove chicken to a platter with breast side down so the juices run to the breast. Hold chicken in 170 degreee oven NOT COVERED until ready to serve. Jacques specifically mentioned that foil-covered chicken will steam a bit and taste ew (my word, not his) but not other fowl like duck, turkey, and pheasant.

7. Optional. A few minutes before the chicken is done, s+p the chicken liver and set it next to the chicken in the roasting pan. Cook 3-4 minutes. It cooks nicely in the chicken juices. Then eat on toast as a chef's treat!

8. Serve and eat the juiciest chicken. Ever. No really; it was. And no butter. My sister will be so proud. Also, I like that all the skin is crispy. YUM. And no roasting rack to clean. BONUS!


In addition to the Best Roast Chicken Ever, I also made roasted potatoes which also were much better than usual, likely because of the high heat and long cooking time.

v's Garlic Roasted Potatoes:

1. Peel and dice (I like mine fairly large, like half an inch to an inch, and they are never square) yukon gold potatoes. We are a big yukon gold household.

2. Drop into boiling water. Cook. I actually cook my potatoes waaaaay too long just to be sure they are soft all the way through.

3. Peel and roughly chop garlic cloves. Last night, we had three good-sized potatoes and like five cloves of garlic. Well, I really like garlic.

4. Drain potatoes. Toss into small roasting pan (I adore my small Ikea roasting pans) with the chopped garlic, s+p, and olive oil. Mix.

5. Toss pan in oven uncovered and let cook until the chicken is done.

6. Optional. Add a little of the chicken juices from the cooked chicken to the finished potatoes and mix.


Yum. No pictures from yesterday's dinner. Next up on the list of things to try:
- Zuni Cafe roast chicken -- supposedly one of the best. Judy Rodgers will s+p the bird, and then let it refrigerate 1-3 days to dry out the skin, giving us a crispier chicken.
- Scott Peacock's Very Good Chocolate Cake -- well, I've never made a cake before, not even from a box. This will be interesting.

I've also started putting paper towewls in bags with my veggies in the fridge. It's a trial of sorts. You are supposed to put in paper towels with some herbs to help soak up the moisture. (Some herbs are supposed to sit in cups of water, but I really find it to be too much trouble.) So I've started adding paper towels to the bags of every veggie, because whenever I pull something out that has gone bad, there is always a ton of moisture in there. So far, everything looks good!