VIDEO: 4 Steps to Perfect Roast Chicken
By Liza Schoenfein February 18, 2015
How to Make a Roast Chicken, from the Jewish Daily Forward, on Vimeo.
It always surprises me when someone says they’re intimidated by the idea of roasting a whole chicken — even though I hear it a lot. My response is to encourage the person to try it, because it’s easy and incredibly rewarding. Really, it’s pretty hard to go wrong.
If anyone’s still not convinced, watch our video and then follow the steps below. There are really just four of them, and you can leave out No. 3 if you feel like keeping it even more simple:
One: Season. Two: Stuff. Three: Bed. Four: Roast.
Within those perameters lie infinite possibilities: Season with the za’atar suggested below, or with other herbs and spices — or just with salt and pepper. Stuff with the lemons and shallots in my recipe, or with garlic and fresh herbs such as thyme and rosemary. Place on a bed of leeks and lemon slices like I do, or on a mixture of eggplant rounds and bell pepper chunks, or on a variety of root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, potatoes and/or beets) — or forget the vegetable bed entirely and place your chickens on a roasting rack.
For simplicity, I like to cook my chickens at 425˚ the whole time, but some people swear by starting the oven high for half an hour, then lowering it to 350 and cooking the chicken longer than my recommended hour and a half. The fact is, all of the above works perfectly — roast chicken is eminently forgiving — so feel free to experiment.
Here’s the recipe, if you still need one…
Liza Schoenfein is the food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @LifeDeathDinner. Her personal blog is Life, Death & Dinner.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
