How to roast a chicken

When I was in my early 30’s, the idea of roasting a chicken seems intimidating. The scariest thing for me is - what if my chicken is undercooked and someone gets sick from it? Mind you, the internet was a lot less sophisticated when I was in my 30’s, and AI really wasn’t a thing then. These days, you can talk to ChatGPT for a roast chicken recipe. You can even tell ChatGPT the weight of your chicken, the kind of oven you have, and AI will spit out the roast chicken recipe in seconds. So, the point of entry is much lower and less intimidating.

Although I’m not an AI, I hope I can make this recipe as simple, and just as un-intimidating as possible.

To start, take the chicken out of the packaging. I prefer giving the bird a quick rinse, and trim off the excess fat before patting it dry.

Before discarding the package, remember the net weight by pound, because that will impact how long you will be roasting the chicken for. I usually do it the fail-proof way of taking a picture (as in this case) before discarding the packaging.

I know this picture is a little gross. But bear with me here. Do check the inside of the chicken and make sure the little inert bag has been removed, and give the inside a little rinse. After that, snip off any extra skin. The chicken will have enough oil and rendered fat from the skin to keep it moist when roasting.

Please do not throw away the excess chicken skin. I usually render the chicken fat in a different pan. Put the extra fat along with a few drops of water in a cast iron pan. I turn on my induction stove on low (2) and let it cook for as long as it needs so all the fat is property rendered. Not only will it give me the liquid gold for future use, it will also give me crispy chicken skin in return while the chicken is being marinated.

Ok, the marinade - you are the driver here. You can show off your culinary muscle or you can go minimalist, either way it will be delicious. This recipe is meant to be minimalistic. So, just salt and pepper for us this time.

You’ll want 1 teaspoon per pound of chicken, and eyeball the amount of pepper. I usually will prepare similar aromatics such as garlic and lemon to stuff it inside the chicken for extra flavor.

The rest is fairly simple. You’ll want to oil the chicken with either a neutral oil or butter (from what America Test Kitchen taught me, butter will give it more flavor and extra crisp), followed by a generous sprinkle of your salt/pepper mixture all over the bird, including under the bird’s skin and inside the cavity. Remember: you should be marinading the inside BEFORE you add the garlic and lemon. I’m just speaking from experience here…

Once you’re done rubbing the salt/pepper mixture and stuffing the chicken, you’ll now tie the chicken with a string of cooking twine. If you don’t have it, don’t worry about it. I’d roasted chickens without the twine before. It’s not that I don’t see a major difference. Part of it is for aesthetic and part of it is to ensure even cooking.

Once you finish tying it up, you can let it marinade in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes, or for the next several hours.

After marinading the bird, take it out and let it rest in room temperature for 20 minutes.

PSA: If you’re concerned about food safety, do what you’re most comfortable with. According to USDA, bacteria does grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40-140F, doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. Their recommendation is to “never leave food out of refrigeration over 2 hours. If the temperature is above 90F, food should not be left out more than 1 hour.”

Back to our regular programming: if you opt to let the bird rest in room temperature for 20 minutes, you can use this time to get up to 350F. This is the temperature we’ll be roasting the bird in. If not, leave the bird in the fridge while you let the oven get to the right temperature.

In terms of how long you cook the bird, it depends if the bird is straight from the fridge or if you let it rest in room temperature. For me, I find this formula quite helpful - 15 minutes per lb of meat, plus 20 minutes.

If you’ll be doing fridge to oven, I highly recommend you add an additional 15 min so the bird has the chance to get up to temperature. Also, be sure to either transfer the bird to an oven safe dish, or marinade your bird in one.

My bird is 4.24lb. So, I’ll roast it in 350F for about 84 minutes.

Before fully taking the bird out, rather than ONLY trusting my formula, please check the internal temperature of the bird to ensure it’s properly cooked. USDA recommends an internal temperature of 165F. For me, I’m quite comfortable taking the chicken out when the internal temperature of the thickest part of the breast reaches 160F, as it will continue to cook after I take the bird out.

After taking the bird out, PLEASE let it rest. Let the juice have the chance to settle. I’m sure you’ve watched enough YouTube videos about this. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes before even THINK about cutting it.

Here’s a picture of my meal. Bon Appetit! It’s roasted chicken drumstick with chimichurri and roasted veggies.