Leave-It-Alone Roast Chicken
Between Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux (the lazy) in her Around My French Table cookbook, and my daughter's coaxing me to just be lazy about the roast chicken (after many attempts at various chef's techniques), I finally conceded that leaving the chicken to its own devices in the oven is the absolute right thing to do. Read on and do as I do.
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.
Notes
About the herbs: Man, this could be a long discussion! I listed some of my favorites with thyme being at the top. But you should use what your tastes love. I love za'atar and sumac for a bit of mid-eastern profile and they marry very well with the citrus and oregano.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!