Is there anything more comforting and appetizing as the smell of a chicken roasting in the oven? It’s the perfect Sunday supper!
Choose a chicken that looks clean and unmarked, and free of tears in its skin. Free-range, naturally-raised, organic or kosher chickens have superior flavour (it’s even worth the higher price point).
Raw chicken juices contaminate food handling surfaces, so be fastidious in cleaning all cutting boards and utensils (including your hands!) with hot, soapy water after preparing a raw chicken for roasting.
A 5-lb chicken serves 4 to 5 people. If frozen, thaw in the fridge for at least 24 hours and up to 48 hours. Check the chicken cavity for a little bag of giblets; remove it. Boiled giblets make a great base for gravy. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels and place on a rack in a shallow roasting pan.
A roasted chicken needs nothing more than salt and pepper, but it does take particularly well to lemon and almost all herbs. To add flavour without much work, take a lemon and poke small holes all over with a toothpick and add to the cavity of the chicken along with several sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary before roasting. Trussing, or tying up a whole chicken is not necessary, but tying together the tips of both legs with butcher’s twine helps to keep the bird looking pretty. Next, rub olive oil or softened unsalted butter all over the bird’s exterior and season generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast at 350 F for about 20 minutes a pound, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the breast reads 180 F. A 5-lb chicken will take about 2 hours to roast, but if the skin starts to become too brown, cover loosely with foil and reduce oven temperature to 325 F.
An instant-read thermometer (digital is best) takes all the guesswork out of cooking a roast to the perfect doneness. It’s one of the most valuable kitchen gadgets you can buy (and not too expensive).
Take the roast out of the oven, place it on a carving board and let it rest (uncovered) for 15 minutes before carving. Refrigerate leftovers quickly; even the carcass can be reserved, and then simmered in water to make a flavourful broth.
While the bird is resting, make a simple pan gravy—it’s a cinch to do! Just spoon out all but a few tablespoons of the fat from the roasting pan and place the pan over medium-high heat on the stove. Once bubbling, pour in up to 1 cup of dry white wine and simmer, scraping up the browned bits on the pan, until liquid is reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the carved chicken. Serve with mashed or roasted potatoes, roasted sweet peppers and sautéed green beans.
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