Salt-and-Pepper Roast Chicken
Updated Feb. 28, 2024
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus marinating
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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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
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.
I used a 425 convection oven. At 45 minutes, it was overcooked (185 F).
This worked out great and was super easy! Drying the chicken as well as possible helped a lot. The second time I made it, I smeared the dried off chicken with softened butter and added 1 tspn each of dried basil, dried oregano and paprika to the salt and pepper. Knowing my oven's quirks, I cooked it on 'fan mode' at a little over 210 C / ~410 F for 50 minutes, then basted and put it back in for an additional 10 or so minutes. Meat thermometer in the thigh showed it was cooked to perfection.
Great go-to roasted chicken recipe, made this on NYE for a festive meal for two. I melted some butter and started basting with butter at the halfway point. Basted it twice (might add some finely chopped rosemary to the melted butter next time for an added kick of flavour on the skin. Highly recommend this foolproof and delicious recipe!