Salt-and-Pepper Roast Chicken
Updated Feb. 28, 2024
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus marinating
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Ingredients
- 1(3½-pound) whole chicken, patted dry
- 2½teaspoons kosher salt
- 2teaspoons black pepper
- Small bunch mixed herbs, such as rosemary, thyme and sage
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
587 calories; 41 grams fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 17 grams monounsaturated fat; 9 grams polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 51 grams protein; 933 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. If you have time, refrigerate the chicken, uncovered, for an hour, or overnight.
- Step 2
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place chicken breast-side up in a roasting pan or large ovenproof skillet. Stuff cavity with herbs and tie the legs together with kitchen twine. (If you don’t have twine, leave the legs as they are.)
- Step 3
Roast 50 minutes, then baste chicken with pan juices. Continue roasting until chicken's juices run clear when skin is pierced with a knife, 5 to 10 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes before carving.
- Now that you know the basics of roasting a chicken, here are some suggestions for how to serve it:
- Try a side sauce. Aioli, béarnaise sauce, salsa verde, romesco sauce, chimichurri, and make-ahead gravy can be prepared in advance, and transform a simple roast chicken into a something a little more special. Even a dollop of Dijon mustard does wonders here.
- Serve your chicken directly on top of a pile of watercress, baby kale, tatsoi, arugula, or other tender, dark greens that have been sprinkled with lemon juice and dusted with salt. The heat of the bird will wilt some of the greens while others remain crisp, and the hot chicken fat makes an instant dressing once it mixes with the lemon juice.
- Substitute hot toasted bread for the watercress or greens, above. The hot chicken fat makes these croutons exquisite.
Private Notes
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Comments
I would add one thing to this great, easy recipe. Place the skillet in the oven while it is heating. That way when you put the chicken in the pan it gives an extra kick of heat to the dark meat which helps it finish cooking at the same time as the white meat. A small chicken can be cooked in as little as 40 minutes when the skillet is preheated.
Very good and very easy. To Melissa Clark's herb bundle of sage, rosemary and thyme, I added parsley. I'm not sure that it improved the flavor significantly. But to someone of the Simon and Garfunkel generation, it made the dish more lyrical.
Add some sliced golden yukon potatoes to the bottom of that skillet and you are a long way to a full meal.
This was very easy, tasty, and juicy. The timing was spot on. i dry brined it overnight, but my husband said I should have done it the way he does turkey, which is to separate as much skin as possible from the flesh before dry brining, which dries the skin separately making it crisp up. We put butter and herbs under the skin before roasting, which adds flavor but doesn't help crisp. We ended up putting it under the broiler for a few minutes which came out much better.
So easy,so excellent, perfect every time
Is a 12-inch staub skillet the best size to use for this roast chicken recipe? I used a rectangular pyrex 9 x 13 pan and it took me forever to clean it.