Roast chicken (adapted from The Food Lab)

To take advantage of slower growing varieties of chickens raised on flavourful forage it is best to cook at high temperatures. Because these birds have more oil than the water-y counterparts, they can handle the extra temperature without drying out. A higher temperature allows for a faster cook and keeps the juices (and flavours) around by the time it sees your mouth.

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A couple of notes... We prefer to spatchcock or butterfly (aka cooking the bird flat by cutting out the backbone) because it allows for the most even cook and for all the parts to reach the required temperature at the same time (you want your legs to reach a higher temperature than your breast meat). We have had nice success brining whole chickens (in a ratio of 1⁄2 cup of salt for 4L water) but have found this is not necessary to produce delicious results so we now omit this step.

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Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle and preheat to 450 °F

2. Dry chicken with paper towel. Separate skin from breast (this gives the crispiest skin and allows you to apply seasoning directly on to the meat) and apply your rub under the skin (recipe below). If you don’t want a rub, just use 1 Tablespoon of oil (veggie, canola or olive).

3. Use a roasting pan or BBQ if the chicken is butterflied or a French oven if kept whole. Roast until the thickest part of the breast close to the bone has registered 165°F on an instant read thermometer. Takes about 35-45 minutes with a butterflied bird. If you are doing a whole bird closer to 50 minutes, and basting helps. 

4. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes (with an aluminum foil tent if desired). Letting the bird rest allows for the meat to relax and the juices to redistribute themselves evenly throughout, and a slightly cooler serving temperature allows the juices to thicken, and makes it less likely for the juices to flow out when you are carving it. The last thing we want is all that flavour on the cutting board!

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Peruvian Style Rub: mix ingredients together

•   1 Tbsp cumin

•   1 Tbsp paprika

•   3 cloves garlic

•   1 Tbsp white vinegar

•   2 Tsp salt

•   1 Tsp black pepper

•   1 Tbsp oil (veggie, canola or olive)