Forget the turkey, make the perfect roast chicken for Thanksgiving

  • By JeanMarie Brownson Chicago Tribune
  • Thursday, November 12, 2015 11:32am
  • Life

Roast chicken just might be the quintessential dinner at home. The aroma, the luxurious flavor and the warmth of the oven draw family and friends to the table like magic. Perhaps that’s the reason so many food writers and cookbook authors go on and on about the topic. My take: Roast chickens often enough that you no longer rely on recipes.

Start by buying the right chicken.

I far prefer a small chicken for roasting. Commonly known as broiler/fryers, they weigh about 3 to 31/2 pounds. Sadly, it can be difficult to find small birds at the supermarket. The National Chicken Council says that just 40 years ago more than 60 percent of all chickens were sold whole. Today, that number hovers around 11 percent, and the birds tend to be ginormous roasters weighing in around 5 pounds.

In my experience, smaller birds don’t need brines to keep them moist, they cook quickly and they stay juicy. Roasters need brining to prevent dry breast meat, they cook unevenly and they take a long time to cook.

Before roasting, to save cooking time and make carving easy, I cut the chickens in half and remove the backbone. These half chickens will roast in 35 to 40 minutes. Beautiful presentation is a bonus.

Handling and cutting chicken intimidates many. No need — especially if you own a pair of kitchen shears, which prove much safer than wielding a knife. Whichever tool you choose, keep your hands clean and dry for a firm, nonslip grip.

First, place the chicken on the cutting board breast side down. Use the shears to cut along either side of the backbone and remove it. (Freeze it for broth-making if you wish.) Then flip the bird breast side up. Use your shears (or a large chef’s knife) to cut it in half smack down the middle, right through the breastbone. Rinse the chicken so no shards of bone remain.

I don’t oil these small chickens or otherwise fuss with the skin; simply pat it very dry with paper towels, then sprinkle it generously with salt, pepper and dry herbs. Roasting the chickens on a rack, which allows the oven air to circulate around it, will yield golden, crisp skin every time.

I take advantage of all the wonderful juices the chicken gives off by setting a pile of vegetables underneath the chicken. The mixture of apples, kale and leeks in the recipe below, seasoned with sage, marjoram and thyme, will remind you a bit of holiday stuffing — minus the bread.

I love the delicious balance of sweet and crunch in the Honeycrisp apples here paired with deeply flavored kale. Other apple options include the sweet Sweetango, tart Granny Smith or quite-sweet, but nicely crunchy, Golden Delicious. Tuscan kale, aka lacinato kale, looks and tastes great here, but the readily available bags of chopped kale make a fine sub. If kale’s not your thing, use roughly chopped Swiss chard leaves (ribs removed) or baby bok choy. I even like savoy cabbage in this dish. Leeks are a mild addition to the mixture; sweet onions can be used instead.

I set up a makeshift rack so the chicken hovers above the vegetables. My 7-quart French oven came with a wire rack that sits about 1/2 inch off the bottom of the pan. Inverted, the rack sits nearer the top of the pan. You can fashion a makeshift roasting setup with a deep baking pan and a wire cooling rack set over it — just be sure the rack is ovenproof. Of course, you can always just set the chicken on top of the vegetables — you just may lose a bit of crispness on the skin. The apple-vegetable mix will be just as tasty.

Roast chicken and vegetables in about 1 hour. Accompany the two with small sweet potatoes baked alongside the chicken. Dinner at home indeed.

Herby, golden roast chicken with apples, leeks and kale

2teaspoons each, dried: ground sage and marjoram (or basil)

11/4teaspoons salt

1teaspoon dried thyme

1/2teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1whole broiler/fryer chicken, about 31/2 pounds

1large leek, ends trimmed, split lengthwise, well rinsed

4 to 5cups roughly chopped lacinato or other tender kale, about 6 ounces total

2medium-large Honeycrisp apples, cored, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

2tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Mix the sage, marjoram, salt, thyme and pepper in a small dish.

Place chicken on cutting board, breast side down. Use sharp kitchen shears to cut out the backbone. Flip chicken over; split the chicken in half through the breastbone. Rinse the chicken, and pat dry. Rub it all over with half of the seasoning blend.

Cut the rinsed leek crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Mix the leek, kale and apples in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with the remaining seasoning blend; toss to mix well. Add the oil; toss again to coat with oil.

Set a wire rack over the vegetable mixture in the pan. Arrange the chicken halves on the rack. Roast, stirring the vegetables once, (be careful moving the chicken while you do this), until chicken juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a fork and vegetables are fork-tender, 35 to 40 minutes.

Carefully move the chicken halves to a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest 5 minutes. Meanwhile, spoon the vegetables and all the pan juices into a serving bowl. Cut the chicken halves into 2 pieces. Serve with the roasted vegetables.

Prep: 25 minutes; cook: 40 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.