SIMPLE ROAST CHICKEN (BOUCHON)
If there ever was a pretty close to perfect non-recipe recipe, this might be it. Chicken, salt & pepper, high heat, finis. It’s tied for my favorite with my mom’s simple pan-roasted chicken, but even my mother might have to admit this one is simpler. And yet, I might never have encountered this without a trip to The French Laundry: friends who accompanied me were so taken with the experience that they went on a quest and started cooking from his books; when I visited them post baby a few years later, they couldn’t stop talking about this non-recipe recipe, and so I made it as soon as I got home.
Well, it never disappoints. I made some changes for my current circumstances: spatchcocked the chicken (my first time ever doing this) because I wasn’t confident about vertical clearance in the countertop oven I was using, and put a layer of potatoes and onions under the chicken (which I do frequently).
Tonight the chicken took about 55 mins, which convinces me that this oven runs under-temp, because usually a 3lb bird takes me 40-50 mins at 450F. I ran the broiler a few times to get the skin crisp and brown (though not evenly golden like it has been in the past).
No matter, it was pretty much perfect. Moist, delicious, fully rendered crisp skin. The chicken itself always has a lot to do with the outcome, as this recipe simply showcases it without adornment.
I did have an unusual amount of juice and fat collected, so after removing the chicken, I drained it off and cooked rice in it, and returned the chicken-soaked potatoes and onions to the oven under the broiler to brown a bit in the meantime.
We enjoyed this meal very much.
(But tomorrow, I order an oven thermometer to prove my suspicions.)
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Here’s the same recipe cooked in a full size screaming hot oven, on a rack (with potatoes under it in the first instance). Probably a 4lb chicken here.
