Roasting a chicken is as easy as putting a baking sheet in the oven
Learn to roast a whole chicken, and you'll eat well for life. And, hey, if you're anything like Prince Harry, it might help you get engaged, too!
There are plenty of reasons you should add a roast chicken to your cooking repertoire. It can be an impressive centerpiece for dinner, and you can use the meat to make so many other dishes, whether it's enchiladas, chicken salad or potpies. Plus, the bones are ideal for broth, and if your chicken comes with a giblet packet of the liver, gizzard and such, make stock or gravy.
Just as important: Roasting a chicken is not that hard.
You can scour the internet or cookbooks and find way too many complicated or intimidating strategies. Brining. Flipping. Stove top and then oven. Spatchcocking. I didn't want any of it. I wanted to roast a chicken, simply.
That is why this recipe from America's Test Kitchen appeals to me. No special steps, no special equipment. (You'll want an instant-read thermometer, but that's a workhorse that's worth the investment if you don't already have one. Also: kitchen twine, cheap and easy to acquire, although some chickens you can buy already have the legs tied back; if you don't have twine, plain, unwaxed dental floss works, as does cutting two slats in the skin and inserting a leg in each one.)
The only other requirements are an ovenproof skillet and some oil, salt and pepper. The genius of the recipe is heating the chicken in a very hot oven for half the time inside the preheated skillet and then letting it finish with the oven turned off. Very little effort - or, really, skill - is needed, and even if it doesn't result in the crispiest chicken skin you'll ever have, the oven-off time keeps the meat from drying out.
Instead of a skillet, I decided to use a durable baking sheet (or sheet pan), which better contained the splattering fat that smoked up our Food Lab oven on my first attempt in a cast-iron skillet (the biggest oven-safe skillet a lot of people own). Plus, the sheet pan gave me enough room to throw on some sliced potatoes, which further cut down on the fat firecrackers and, of course, resulted in a built-in side dish.
Once you master this recipe - probably the very first time you make it - you can start tweaking it to suit your tastes. Throw lemon or onion in the chicken cavity. Put flavored butter over and under the skin. Season with your favorite spices. You've only just begun.