"Must Have Every Week" Chicken

A Farm Friend writes:

"A super easy, hands off weeknight dinner I make is roast chicken. I use this recipe from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen—or more accurately the "process"—because I rarely make the whole recipe. Rather, I just use the steps for the bird and skip the salad part (small chicken, dry-brined with salt & fresh herbs for 2 days, quick roast in a super-hot oven and a cast-iron skillet). It's the best roast chicken I know, but I still find roast chicken somewhat boring.

That is ... until last week when I used a J&L bird. We are long time customers and drop hosts, and I don't know why I've never bought whole small chickens before. 

I made the chicken and my whole family commented on how amazing it was, saying we should have it every week and wondering why we didn't remember how good the recipe really is. I then realized that it was almost certainly the fact that it was a J&L chicken that took it from great to "must have every week."

I served it with roasted potatoes and asparagus, and we had a generous dinner for 3 and 3 lunch sandwiches with the leftovers. Not bad for $20."

The ingredients she uses:

• Small (3-4lb) Whole Chicken Broiler
• Fresh Herbs (fresh thyme, marjoram, rosemary or sage) - 4 small sprigs
• Salt
• Pepper (optional)

Her steps:

TWO DAYS PRIOR

1. Rinse thawed roaster and pat dry.
2. Dry brine the roaster by sprinkling salt & optional pepper liberally over the outside of the bird (also a little salt inside if you want, along the backbone). Tuck a sprig of the herb under the skin of both breasts, and under the skin of the thickest part of both thighs.
3. Cover loosely and refrigerate for 2 days.

DAY OF

1. Preheat the oven to 475°F. Preheat a 12-inch cast iron frying pan over medium heat. Wipe the chicken dry and set it breast side up in the pan. It should sizzle.
2. Place the chicken in the pan in the center of the oven. Listen and watch for it to start browning within 20 minutes. If it doesn’t, raise the temperature progressively until it does. The skin should blister, but if the chicken begins to char, or the fat is smoking, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees. After about 30 minutes, turn the bird over — drying the bird and preheating the pan should keep the skin from sticking. Roast for another 10 to 20 minutes, depending on size, then flip back over to recrisp the breast skin, another 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Remove the chicken from the oven and turn off the heat. Lift the chicken from the roasting pan and set on a plate.
4. Slash the stretched skin between the thighs and breasts of the chicken, then tilt the bird and plate over the roasting pan to drain the juice. (If you want to make drippings, drain the clear fat from the roasting pan first. Follow instructions in the full recipe from Smitten Kitchen.)
5. Let the roaster rest while you finish your side dishes (or Bread Salad from the full recipe). The meat will become more tender and uniformly succulent as it cools.
6. Cut into pieces and serve warm.

Photo Credit: Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen