How to Get a Roast Chicken on the Table in 30 Minutes

There are 3 million chicken recipes on the internet. We're here to show you the good ones. Win, win.

Today: For nights when you don't have time (and need a bottle of wine).

It's 4 P.M. and you're daydreaming of dinner—you would kill for a simple roast chicken and a cool glass of white wine. Yes, you decide, that's what I'll have for dinner tonight. But as 8 P.M. rolls around and you haven't even fired up the oven, your high hopes of a golden roast get replaced by less time-consuming alternatives, like another bowl of pasta with leftover pesto—but they don't have to. Not only does this roast chicken take a quarter of the time of a traditional roast, but it only uses one pan so you'll have less to clean afterwards. The trick to the quicker chicken is two-fold: First, ask your butcher to cut it into 8 parts for you for faster cooking; second, pan-fry it over the stove top for crispy skin so you only have to bake it for 15 minutes. So help yourself to that bottle of wine—just save some for the chicken.

Super-Quick Roast Chicken with Garlic and White Wine Gravy

Serves 4

One 3 1/3 pound whole free-range, skin-on chicken, cut into eight pieces and backbone removed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 garlic bulb, halved
8 sprigs fresh thyme, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup white wine, divided
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Save (and print) the full recipe here.

Photo by James Ransom

Is there an undiscovered Food52 chicken recipe you love? Send us a paragraph or two at [email protected] about why you love it, and it could be next week's Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner.