Roast chicken is on constant rotation Chez Nous ... especially during the fall and winter! When the temperatures start dipping, it's so cozy to smell the heady fragrance of meat, citrus, and herbs. Makes me want a wood fire to roast over! Between Dorie Greenspan, my daughter, and me, (and lots of testing this or that method), I've come up with possibly the easiest way to make roast chicken. You just leave it alone ... therefore the name of this recipe (if it can be called a recipe), Leave-It-Alone Roast Chicken.
I've tried many methods of roasting chicken over the years.
- Great chefs have suggested stuffing herbed butter between the skin and the flesh. Each and every time I've tried this very "chef-fy" method, it as left me with a smoky kitchen, scurrying to open windows, and turn on fans! Comical sometimes! And I don't even get as crispy of a skin as I require on any roast chicken that I consume!
- Other great chefs suggest that I should stuff the bird! Too much, people, SO VERY VERY much! I don't even stuff my Thanksgiving turkey so I'm certainly not going to stuff a casual Sunday roast. And really, come on, is there even enough room in a chicken for enough stuffing for dinner? Let's just face the facts.
- Still other great chefs have suggested roasting the chicken for a bit breast side up, then turning it over so the juices seep back into the breasts (which tend to dry out), then turning it back towards the end of roasting to get the breast skin crispy. That's a lot of opening and closing of the oven and handling a very hot bird! Can't it be easier? Yes, it can. It most certainly can. Keep reading, my friend.
Let me tell you about this collaboration with Dorie and my daughter for Leave-It-Alone Roast Chicken
I wish I could say that it was truly an in person collaboration! I've met Dorie in person more than once and she is delightful. She even asked me to address the audience at one meeting! It's widely known that I adore both Dorie AND my daughter so to have them both influence the way I've landed on a chicken roasting method is KOABD (kind of a big deal)!
All of that said ... Dorie has a recipe in her cookbook Around My French Table that she calls Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux. Which, being interpreted, is roast chicken for lazy people! Doesn't laziness sound so much better en francais? Les paresseux ... (roughly pronounced lay pahraysuh) makes laziness sound not so negative.
After all of my trying different methods to arrive at a roast chicken that was successful every.single.time. my daughter said to me, "Mom, just be lazy about it! Dorie says it's OK!" And God knows that my daughter with four sweet Littles under the age of six has no extra time to make something as simple as roast chicken more complicated than it has to be!
Season the cavity!
I like to put some aromatics in the cavity ... some citrus and herbs. They lend quite a bit of flavor to the juices! If you're new to roasting chicken, check to be sure there's no bag of "innards" tucked in there! If there is, just pull it out. Some people like to eat them ... I'm not one of those people, but you can save it for making chicken stock. If you don't make chicken stock, freeze that little bag and look for a friend who does. Waste not, want not.
Before I put the aromatics in the cavity, I salt it. Just hold the bird up and sprinkle salt inside. There's lots of meat between the skin and the bone and if you only salt the outside, you're missing out on seasoning.
Put all of the citrus and herbs inside, tie the legs together and tuck the wings under its butt.
Now the fun part of seasoning the skin!
I start with a coating of oil, then salt and pepper for sure. You can stop there and the chicken would be delicious.
However, you can also get creative with herbs and make a roast chicken that won't soon be forgotten. How about thyme? Tarragon? Marjoram? Rosemary, oregano, and sage? What about za'atar and sumac as the chicken in the photo below is adorned thus indulging my recent dive into mid-eastern spices and flavors? You can be as creative as you want!
The easy roasting part
After oiling and seasoning the bird, put it in a Dutch oven ... a cast iron one works, an enameled coated one works ... you can even use a clay pot like the one I have from Pampered Chef that I bought YEARS ago.
Then put the cooking dish in a preheated 450-degree oven ... and leave it alone for 1 ½ hours. That's it.
Just. Leave. It. The. Heck. Alone.
I cannot emphasize this enough! Don't check on it. No poking it with the thermometer. Basting is not needed. JUST. LEAVE. IT. ALONE.
It's happy and becoming something different. The deliciousness will be everything you dreamed a roast chicken could be. And then, you'll be happy, too.
Recipe
Leave-It-Alone Roast Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 3-5 pound chicken
- oil to rub on the chicken
- salt and pepper to season
- ¼ orange reserve the other ¾
- ½ lemon reserve the other ½
- 2-4 cloves fresh garlic
- herbs of choice thyme ,tarragon, marjoram, sage, rosemary, za'atar, sumac (see notes)
- oil for the roasting dish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Remove the chicken from the fridge a half hour before putting it in the oven.
- Rub the chicken all over with a high-smoke point oil like avocado oil.
- During the half hour of bringing the chicken more to room temperature, season the cavity of the chicken with salt and put the orange, lemon, garlic, and herbs in the cavity of the chicken.
- Lightly oil a Dutch oven or pottery bowl and put the chicken. Roast it uncovered and untouched for 1½ hours.
- Just leave it alone. Trust me.
- When 1½ hours are up, take it out, and let it rest for a few minutes ... 15-30 ... before carving it.
- When you move the chicken to the cutting board to carve it, reheat the juices in the Dutch oven and squeeze the juice from the reserved orange and lemon into the pot. Reduce slightly, then serve with the chicken.
Tom
Hi Tammy, this is the second time I’ve used this recipe because the first time I used it, it was fabulous!! I used a Lodge Dutch oven and put the bird flat on the bottom. So I have a question; I picked up somewhere, perhaps from one of your commenters, that using a trivet makes for a better result. So yesterday, I used the recipe again, but this time I put the bird on a Lodge iron trivet. The first time I did the recipe there was no smoke and I did use avocado oil as suggested. This time I followed the recipe again and the only difference was that I put the bird on a trivet. The sizzling and cracking noise was much more audible and it was accompanied by a lot of smoke; and the oven is clean. Wondering if any of your other followers have had a similar experience. Thank you and Happy New Year!
Tammy Circeo
I'm so glad you love it! Roast chicken is one of the most comforting of dinners and having a tried-and-true recipe makes it that much better. I've never used a trivet to put the chicken on in the pot, but it makes sense to me that there would be more sizzling and smoke because of the chicken fat dripping directly onto the surface of the pot. This is also why I don't recommend using butter ... because it smokes too much at such a high temperature. So, for me, it's no butter, and I sure wouldn't want to clean that trivet! 😀
Kim
This chicken was AMAZING. And super easy. I used thyme as my additional seasoning. I left it to cook 1.5 hours and it was perfect. The juiciest chicken I’ve ever made. Even my picky child loves it. I never write reviews, but this one deserves it.
Tammy Circeo
Wow. I'm happy to hear you've had success with this recipe! I love it, too ... one of our family's favorites. Thank you for commenting!
reyhan
thanks a lot of information amazing
Tammy Circeo
Thank you!
ruth flannigan
Planning to give this recipe a go. But no taking the temperature of the roasted chicken, and no time difference whether the bird is 3 pound or 5 pound. Do I just go ahead as instructed?
Tammy Circeo
If it was me, I'd proceed as instructed. However, with everything I cook, I not only use the instructions in a recipe, but I rely a lot on all of my senses and intuition and advise you to do the same. Most chickens are going to be more in the 4-5 pound range so you'll not have to worry about the cooking time being too much.
Kathryn D'Andrea
can I use olive oil to rub on the chicken?
Tammy Circeo
You can, but I recommend using a high-smoke-point oil because of the health conflicts when using a low-smoke-point oil. Olive oil will work, of course, but maybe do a little search on the effects of certain oils heating too high, then decide.
Becky
Excellent ! Easy, delicious. Definitely my new go to.
Tammy Circeo
I'm so glad you loved it!
Joyce
I loved this! Chicken juicy and delicious!
Tammy Circeo
I'm glad you loved it! It's one of my favorite comfort foods!
Joan Bey
Absolutely delicious. Crispy skin and juicy breast meat. Only one small change . . I salted chicken night before and set it in rack on sheet pan in fridge. Then followed recipe exactly as written. PERFECT!
Tammy Circeo
That method of salting the night before and letting it set in the fridge is one I use often ... especially with chicken wings. The drying out of the skin and the salt is an A.MAZ.ING. method to get the most crispy skin! So good!
Veronica Smith
Easy easy. Very tasty. Best chicken ever!!!
Tammy Circeo
Yay! I'm glad you loved it! And yes, it very easy!
Sue Bugos
The skin started turning VERY dark after half an hour of cooking so I needed to cover it with foil. What did I do wrong?
Tammy Circeo
Oh dear! I've never had that happen after just 30 minutes! Perhaps your oven rack was too close to the upper burner?
Kathy
Cannot wait to make this tonight! Do I leave the lid on during cooking?
Tammy Circeo
No lid needed!
Susan McCurdy
I wondered about the lid as well. Also, have you ever made it in a convection oven?
Tammy Circeo
You don't want to put the lid on because you don't want to create a steaming effect. You want the direct heat on the chicken skin ... crispy is where it's at!
Can you believe I have never used the convection option on my oven?! I've read, though, that you can preheat the convection oven just as you would normally, and roast the chicken for about 10 minutes per pound. Since I've not tested it, I can't vouch for it, but when in doubt, use a thermometer to test the internal temperature!