Roasted Quartered Chicken with Herb Sauce
Two simple tips for making the skin crispy:
1. Let the chicken stand at room temperature uncovered for one hour before cooking.
2. Pat chicken dry with paper towels so skin doesn’t steam in oven.
If you do these two things, in addition to letting the meat rest for 10 minutes before carving, your roast chicken will be divine — crispy skin, golden brown all around, juicy meat.
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Total Time:
Ingredients:
| 1 whole | chicken (about 4 pounds), quartered and backbone removed, room temperature |
| 1 tablespoon | plus 1/4 cup (optional, see notes in recipe) extra-virgin olive oil |
| kosher salt and freshly ground pepper | |
| 2 tablespoons | red-wine vinegar |
| 1 cup | packed parsley or basil or tarragon (or whatever), chopped (or pulsed in food processor, see notes) |
| 1/2 teaspoon | minced garlic (or a couple of cloves, minced with herbs in the food processor) |
| 1/2 teaspoon | red-pepper flakes, or more or less to taste |
Directions:
1. An hour before baking, remove chicken from fridge, quarter it (if you haven’t done so already), and let it rest on a cutting board or the rimmed sheetpan you will use to roast it on. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Note: I find my chicken gets the most evenly golden brown when I roast it on the highest rack. This definitely creates a more smokey oven, but it does work nicely.
Pat chicken dry really well with paper towels and transfer to rimmed baking sheet (if it’s not already there). Rub chicken with 1 tablespoon oil; season liberally all over with salt and pepper. Arrange, skin-side up and roast until golden (or until a thermometer inserted into thickest part of breast (without touching bone) registers 160 degrees), about 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, make the sauce. I use the food processor, and because I omit the 1/4 cup olive oil and use the pan juices in stead, (which amount to about 1/4 cup; see notes below for following original recipe), I simply pulse the basil with the garlic, red pepper flakes, and red wine vinegar, then pour this sauce over the sheetpan after the chicken finishes roasting. If you like this idea, when the chicken finishes roasting, transfer it to a plate for a second, pour sauce over the pan, scrape up those crispy bits, return chicken to pan and let it rest for 10 minutes. Just before serving, spoon the sauce over the chicken pieces. I find that waiting to pour the sauce over the top helps keep the skin crispy.
Source: https://www.alexandracooks.com/2014/05/14/the-crispiest-spring-chicken/
