The Dynamite Chicken cookbook is here! Get ready for 60 brand-new ways to love your favorite bird. Inside this clever collection by Food52 and chef Tyler Kord, you'll find everything from lightning-quick weeknight dinners to the coziest of comfort foods.
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13 Comments
Westcoasty
March 12, 2017
My favourite recipe so far is to stuff the cavity with fresh herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary), then pour a couple of glugs of Madeira over the bird, followed by the juice of a fresh-squeezed lemon. The chicken is then sprinkled with sea salt before roasting at 375 in a covered roasting pan. You can put halved fresh mushrooms in the pan while cooking to soak up the heavenly pan juices, or make rice to pour them over.
RandR
November 1, 2015
Air drying the chicken and then slightly brown the skin with a propane torch oil or butter the skin for perfect skin salt before roasting at 450 about 1hour take it out of the oven to rest when instant read temp is 140 F herb or spice of your choice in summer indirect heat on the grill covered is a good variation
Sdonk
October 21, 2015
Nice post, I admire your dedication in trying several recipes.
Heston Blumenthal's perfect roast chicken is the recipe I use when I remember to start the day before. The chicken is brined overnight and then roasted in a mild oven until cooked (takes about 4 hours) and then blasted into a hot oven to get a crispy skin.
I'm also tempted to try the ChefSteps method (https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-roast-chicken), but I can't hang a whole chicken either in the fridge nor in the oven so I need to get creative.
Heston Blumenthal's perfect roast chicken is the recipe I use when I remember to start the day before. The chicken is brined overnight and then roasted in a mild oven until cooked (takes about 4 hours) and then blasted into a hot oven to get a crispy skin.
I'm also tempted to try the ChefSteps method (https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-roast-chicken), but I can't hang a whole chicken either in the fridge nor in the oven so I need to get creative.
Humphrey P.
October 14, 2015
Following up on my comment below, just wish to note that this recipe has never failed - the chicken is invariably moist, it cooks in an hour and 10 minutes or less (if the bird is less than 4 pds), and there is only 1 small pan to clean.
Humphrey P.
October 14, 2015
The best and easiest is the aptly titled "Naked Road Chicken" by the four-time James Beard winner Rozanne Gold. The recipe was published in the weekend edition of the WSJ, November 12-13, 2011. The chicken goes superbly with Gourmet's recipe for Black Peppercorn-Maple Sauce published in the second Gourmet Cookbook edited by the esteemed Ruth Reichl.
Nancy
October 14, 2015
Loved your opening paragraph (and open mind about other recipes). To add one more to the mix, Michael Ruhlman recipe from Ruhlman's Twenty:
Seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/09/perfect-roasted-chicken-recipe.html
Seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/09/perfect-roasted-chicken-recipe.html
Maureen M.
October 14, 2015
Over here in the UK, Simon Hopkinson's chicken is revered
http://www.countrylife.co.uk/life-in-the-country/greatest-recipes-ever-simon-hopkinsons-roast-chicken-21456
http://www.countrylife.co.uk/life-in-the-country/greatest-recipes-ever-simon-hopkinsons-roast-chicken-21456
702551
October 13, 2015
It's worth pointing out that shortly before her untimely passing, Judy Rodgers did not cook her birds in the manner described in her cookbook.
She backed off a lot on the salt (not just poultry, but almost everything). I chatted with her at Zuni a few years before she died, and clearly she had mellowed on her salt stance.
I'm still a big fan of dry seasoning poultry and not using brine (ugh).
Part of the brilliance of the Zuni roast chicken is the wood-fired oven which draws air past the bird (convection cooking), something that the average home cook cannot duplicate with their ovens. If you are a skilled grillmaster, you can accomplish this on your grill (with a closed hood).
She backed off a lot on the salt (not just poultry, but almost everything). I chatted with her at Zuni a few years before she died, and clearly she had mellowed on her salt stance.
I'm still a big fan of dry seasoning poultry and not using brine (ugh).
Part of the brilliance of the Zuni roast chicken is the wood-fired oven which draws air past the bird (convection cooking), something that the average home cook cannot duplicate with their ovens. If you are a skilled grillmaster, you can accomplish this on your grill (with a closed hood).
soupcon
October 13, 2015
My perfect roast chicken starts the night before. It is "the Judy Bird" recipe but I have found you do not need to measure exactly the salt per 5 lbs of bird weight as in the recipe. I generously salt the chicken with diamond kosher coarse salt and let it sit overnight in the fridge uncovered on a rack and the next day before roasting I bring it up to room temperature if I remember before roasting in a hot oven on a rack in the roasting pan until a thermometer stuck into the space between the breast and the thigh registers 165*F. I don't stuff or truss the bird but do salt the cavity. Sometimes I skip the overnight in the fridge bit and just salt the bird an hour or two before roasting. Overnight in the fridge uncovered dries out the skin and the result the next day is the most crispy addictive chicken skin you have ever had.
Amy
October 13, 2015
My favorite way to roast a bird and now pork is as well is to dry brine. It's so delicious with little prep. Rub salt all over, leaving it uncovered in your fridge overnight. Roast the next day at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ben
October 13, 2015
Surprisingly, my favorite 'recipe' is 350 F with a plain chicken on an elevated rack. No salt, oil, butter, or anything else. Then I serve it with a side homemade dipping sauce and a salt grinder. It produces the juiciest chicken with perfect skin.
Allyn
October 13, 2015
In our house we've tried countless versions of roast chicken and at this point, my husband usually tweaks a basic version with whatever flavors we're in the mood for and it turns out beautifully. However, he recently made Ina's Engagement Roast Chicken (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/engagement-roast-chicken-recipe.html?oc=PTNR-joy_the_baker-pubexchange_article), and it might be my new favorite. I especially love the lemony gravy that it produces over rice and vegetables on the side. So dang good
ChefJune
October 13, 2015
Well, Alana, here's another one for you to try. It's posted here on Food52, and it's also in MY cookbook, "Feastivals Cooks at Home." It's the recipe I make "without a recipe," and quite a large number of folks say its the best they've ever made, as well. :) https://food52.com/recipes/3401-perfect-roast-chicken Let me know what you think.
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