Nothing says comfort food like a delicious roasted chicken. Crispy brown skin and tender, juicy meat – yum! The secret to this wonderful dish is the brining step. My good friend and JWU colleague, Chef Bobby Brener taught me about the 5% brine solution when I was brining my fried chicken for a Know Your Foodways demo at school years ago. There should be 5% (by weight) kosher salt and sugar for the amount of water. This one is a bit more diluted, just because I knew I would be leaving it in the brine a couple of days. It worked out perfectly! When you brine meat before cooking it, through the process of osmosis, the salt causes the meat to absorb liquid and retain moisture, ensuring that the white breast meat remains super juicy and all of it more tender.

I will categorize this recipe as “live to eat,” since it does take some extra time and energy to brine it ahead of the day you want to eat. Sure, “eat to live” friends, you can buy roast chicken at the grocery store, BUT I am telling you, this is worth the time and effort because it is such a tasty treat.

The searing step is essential to get the nice crispy, brown skin. At school, our ovens are way faster than mine at home. My catch phrase in class when I teach roasting is, “When it’s brown, turn it down!” You will see in the step-by-step pictures after the recipe that mine was just barely starting to brown and crisp after 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven. If you have a convection oven, which circulates the air much more efficiently, you should start to see browning after only 20 minutes. So, to answer the question, “how long should I sear it at the high temperature?” Sorry, but this is one of those times when I say the typically obnoxious chef answer, “It depends…” My students don’t really like that, but they get used to it. After the sear step, turn the oven down to 350 degrees to finish roasting it. If you keep the temperature at the higher temp, you risk drying out the chicken.

We ate this delicious meal outside on the patio, since it has been such a gorgeous weather week. There is nothing like dining al fresco with dappled sunlight and a nice breeze, is there? We felt very European – siesta anyone?? I served it with creamy mashed yukon gold potatoes and green beans. It was absolutely delicious.

I probably should have recorded how to remove the wishbone and truss the chicken. #nexttime At some point, I do plan to add a section to my blog for the basic techniques, such as that. #goals I did include a video on how to carve the chicken once it is cooked, so scroll down to find that with the step-by-step pictures following the recipe. I hope that you enjoy this recipe. Please let me know how it turns out. Subscribe if you would like to get my recipes in your inbox whenever I post. Thank you! ~ Ashley