my name is not matt

I have been thinking about sharing some of my favorite recipes and dishes here on my blog. I figured a good place to start is with my simple,  delicious, roasted chicken. Now, when I say simple, I mean simple.

Ingredients

• 4-5 pound whole chicken (preferably free-range, organic)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt

Prepration

Pre-heat your oven to 425° (If you’re using a convection oven, either use 400° or adjust your cooking time by about 5-10 minutes).

Remove the chicken from the packaging. Feel free to cook, or use, the innards. I don’t care for them. Don’t rinse the chicken. Instead, just pat it dry with paper towels. Place the chicken in a flat dish, plate, or on a cutting board. Lather  the chicken with the olive oil, and then generously sprinkle the Kosher salt all over the surface of the bird (both sides).

Place the chicken on a roasting rack and put it on a sheet pan. If you have a roasting rack, take some aluminum foil and crumple it up and place it in a sheet pan to serve as the rack. The crumpled foil will allow the oil to run away from the chicken so that the skin will get crispy all around. Another thing to try is to take some bread, French bread or day-old bread is great. Create a layer of the bread in the bottom of the sheet pan and put the chicken on top. You can use the crispy bread for coutons if you make a salad. Truss the legs. For whatever reason, I have a bunch of pipe cleaners in my pantry. I soak the the pipe cleaner in oil so that it won’t burn in the oven.

Place the chicken in the oven for  and hour and 15 minutes. Be advised that the chicken will smoke because of the oil. You might want to keep the overhead fan running and a window cracked. Don’t bother the chicken while it’s cooking in the oven. Just let it do its thing. Once the time is up, remove the chicken from the oven and let stand for about 10 minutes.

That’s it. The results are the same every time.

This is a change from how I used to roast chickens, which was at a lower temperature for a longer time. I also used to stuff my chicken with lemons and garlic or lavender. (I actually sprinkled a little lavender on this chicken). This recipe will produce a juicy chicken with crispy skin, because of the olive oil and salt. Naturally, you should feel free to play around with spices and seasonings that you like. If you use herbs, try tucking them between the skin and the meat.

Enjoy!