This recipe is thanks to Patricia Wells, perhaps my favorite cookbook writer who learned it from Joel Robuchon, one of France's greatest chefs. Wells recipes are delicious and easy to follow. If you only buy one book, buy one of hers. I've roasted hundreds of chickens hundreds of ways. This is the best. There's lots of timing and turning but its worth it.
Ingredients
- Whole chicken - buy the best you can affort, preferably free-range and organic. Industrially raised chickens have horrible lives and taste horrible too.
- Butter
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 425F/220C
2. In a small bowl, combine about 5 tablespoons butter and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mash with a fork until the butter is like a smooth paste
3. Start at the neck end of the chicken (think about it) and put your finger between the skin and the flesh of the breast. Loosen the skin away from the flesh carefully and try not to tear it. Then push the softened butter up under the skin over the side of both breasts.
4. Place the chicken on its side in the roasting tray and roast for 20 minutes
5. Turn the chicken to the other side and roast for 20 minutes
6. Turn the chicken with the breast side up for 20 minutes.
7. Lower the heat to 375F/190C, turn the chicken breast side down for 10 minutes
8. Take out of the oven, let the bird sit for 10 minutes and carve.
