Restaurant Status Roasted Chicken, For Real

  I believe in the power of a well roasted chicken. It’s in my DNA.

  Growing up in a non-religious Jewish household, the whole roasted chicken was our bread and butter. It fed many a mouth and its value was the sum of its parts. Which means, we used the whole buffalo. Chicken. We’re talking about chicken.

  What I’m trying to say is that one chicken can go a long way. We might roast a chicken on Saturday or Sunday night and have leftovers to make the chicken salad to bring in brown bags to school the next day, our lunch line counterparts sighing as their plastic trays await some greasy, foggy slop a.k.a. cafeteria food.

  When the bones are picked dry and the chicken salad is tucked into tupperware and stored in the fridge, we might roast the bones of the chicken at a high temperature (500 degrees F) to make homemade stock. Maybe chicken soup, if it’s that time of the year or someone needs a little Jewish penicillin (a.k.a. chicken soup). 

  Now, as I continue to excel in the art of adulting, roasted chicken is my go-to, but I usually don’t buy a whole chicken. I’ll buy skin-on, bone-in breasts and thighs and do it like this. Be sure to check the chicken once in the oven after 20 minutes. Oven temperatures vary. 

  A crisp skin and juicy meat, course salt and plenty of fresh herbs, and you’ve got a delicious, affordable homemade meal, and let’s be real: that’s what life is all about.