Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- On this chicken, the skin disappears first. Let it. Cold chicken skin makes lousy leftovers.
- 1 - 1 whole roasting chicken, 3 lbs.
- - Lemon pepper
- - Kosher salt
- - Cracked black pepper
Preparation
Step 1
If you know you’re going to want this chicken in advance, it is best to salt the bird overnight. Combine 1/2 tbsp Kosher salt in a small bowl with some lemon pepper and carefully massage it into the breast and thigh meat, under the skin. If you are not confident that you will not break the skin, just massage the seasoning onto the surface of the bird. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and lemon pepper into the cavity of the bird. Truss the chicken, then place it in a small roasting dish or pan and store, covered, in refrigerator overnight.
A couple hours before you’re ready to eat, take the chicken out of the refrigerator. You want the bird to reach room temperature before you put it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, then sprinkle another 3/4-1 tbsp of salt all over–breast, legs, back, thigh, wings. Do this from a distance of at least 8 inches to achieve an even coat. Season to taste with fresh cracked black pepper.
Place the chicken in the oven. If your oven’s heat source comes from below, as mine does, position the chicken on the lower rack. Roast for 35-40 minutes, until it is crackling and brown and the skin between the leg and the breast is taut and has separated from the meat. If you are unsure about the doneness, pierce the bird at the thigh. If the juice runs clear, the chicken is done.
Untrussing the bird is like unwrapping a present. But you have to wait. Let the bird sit, tented under foil, for ten minutes before you eat. This allows the juices to settle. Roast chicken is usually thought a formal kind of meal, but when I eat it, it is with my hands. Save your fork for your salad.
Slathering hot chicken meat in butter, as Thomas Keller suggests, will shorten your life by years, but in a nice way. So will drenching each bite in chicken fat and pan gravy, but also in a nice way. The wings, salty and fatty and crisp, are my favorite. And I will fight you for them. Best stay out of my way.