Perfect Roast Chicken

This is my weekly roast chicken recipe. It never fails to comfort and delight.

This is delicious. The directions from Food Network and the cookbook are slightly different even though they cite the same recipe, so I improvised with the vegetables I added to the pan- fennel, carrot and onion. The chicken looks beautiful coming out of the oven and tastes wonderful. We carved it up before I could take a photo!

This is now my standard way of preparing a roast chicken, and it is perfect every time. It completely changed the way I think about a roast chicken. Lucky Jeffrey, to come home to that on a Friday night.

You really can just walk away and come back in 1 ½ hours to a perfectly roasted chicken. But I did cover it with foil after an hour, so the dark meat would not dry out too much. I did not want the gravy, and saved most of the chicken for later. It was great to have on hand to throw together a quick meal. It was nice and simple, but had good flavor.

I've done this chicken several times with very good results ... although as another reviewer notes, the onions do seem to burn before the chicken is ready.

I follow Thomas Keller's suggestion in Ad Hoc at Home and let the chicken sit for an hour or so at room temperature prior to roasting. As a result, I generally roast for a slightly shorter period than the 90 minutes called for by the recipe. I think doing so results in better taste and texture.

The Chicken came out great but the onions that were under the chicken came out a little burned.