Roast Chicken in a Cast Iron Skillet
By Addie
Under the headline "World's Easiest Dinner" in Esquire magazine, this recipe was impossible to ignore. Roast chicken is already one of the easiest hearty meals around, but cooking it in a cast-iron skillet makes it pretty much foolproof. From chef Linton Hopkins of Atlanta's Restaurant Eugene, this three-ingredient regimen renders a bird with golden-brown skin that's "juicy as hell." Look at the photo above - I removed some of the skin to show how moist this bird is!
The recipe calls for a three-pound chicken, though I got one that was about 2.5 pounds, which was just big enough to squeeze into my 10-inch skillet. I only salted and peppered my meat, and with so much moistness, it had plenty of flavor. For the delicious details and the recipe, read more.
Ingredients
- 1 3 to 3.5-pound chicken
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- Coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Step 1
To mix things up, Hopkins suggests stuffing the bird with rosemary or a cut lemon or adding chopped carrots to the skillet halfway through. Says the chef: "I can rinse, dry, season, and get the bird in the oven, and by the time I help my kids with their homework, dinner's ready."
Place your oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
Get yourself a good chicken — 3 to 3.5 pounds is ideal — and rinse it inside and out under cold running water. Using paper towels, dry the bird thoroughly inside and out. The chicken must be bone dry or it will steam rather than brown.
Set it in a cast-iron skillet and generously season it with 1 tablespoon kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste.
Place the skillet in the preheated oven and go about your business.
For doneness: Slit underside of thigh — juices must run clear (about 45 minutes). The high heat turns the chicken a golden brown, and it's juicy as hell.
Recipe should be called Ridiculously Easy Roast Chicken!!!!
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REVIEWS:
This was awesome! Just made this for dinner and it was so good. Thanks for the gravy tip psteve! I put the onions in the bottom of the pan and then used a little bit of flour and chicken broth to make the gravy when the chicken was done. Super good.
I put a layer of sliced onions in the pan before I put the chicken in. Then make a great gravy from the onions and chicken juices.
We use this recipe on a Cornish hen for the two of us and it is perfect. so juicy and tender...we love it! I sprinkle Mrs. Dash, some Emril's chicken rub and spray olive oil pam on it. I just cut down the time to about 30 minutes for 1 hen.
In my town, it's impossible to find a decent-sized roasting chicken at the grocery store--if you find one at all. (Lots of fryers, though.) We called our favorite meat market/butcher and asked them to get one for us. We'll never get our roasting chickens from another place again.