Roast Chicken
This recipe is for those of you who like tender, moist breast meat, crisp skin and overcooked thigh meat.
For 4
- One 2½ - 3 lb free-range chicken
- 3 handfuls of fresh herbs (basil, parsley, marjoram), finely chopped
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lemon, halved
- 4 bay leaves, torn
- 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the roasting tray in the oven that is at 425° F.
Wash the chicken inside and out and pat as dry as possible with paper towels. Rub the cavity with salt. Very carefully grab the skin at the tip of the chicken breasts, making sure that it doesn’t rip, and pull up gently. With our other hand gently separate the skin from the meat of the breasts. Now you have made two little tunnels on each side. Sprinkle a little salt down the gaps and push in the chopped herbs. Drizzle in a little olive oil.
Push the lemon, the bay leaves and the rosemary in the cavity. Pull the skin of the chicken breasts forward so that none of the flesh is exposed, tuck the little winglets under and tie up as firmly as possible with kitchen twine.
Slash across each thigh about 3 or 4 times and rub in some of the leftover herbs. This allows the heat to penetrate directly into the thigh meat, enabling it cook faster. With your hand, rub a little olive oil into the skin of the chicken and season very generously with salt and pepper.
Remove the hot roasting tray from the oven and add a little oil. Put the chicken on one side, breast side down, on the tray and put back in the oven. Cook for 5 minutes, then turn it over to the other side, breast side down. Cook for another 5 minutes, then place the chicken on its back. Cook for about 1 hour. The skin should be really crispy and the herbs will flavor the flesh.
Buon appetito from Los Angeles Ovenworks!
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