Weeknight Roast Chicken
Salt it in the morning, roast it hot, and let it rest. Three decisions, one pan, and enough leftovers to make the next night easy.
- Prep
- 15m
- Cook
- 55m
- Waiting
- 8h
- Total
- 9h 10m
- Serves
- 4, with leftovers
- Effort
- Easy
Method
| 1.6 kg | 1 Rub all over, inside and out 5m | 2 Dry-brine uncovered in the fridge, at least 8 hours 10m Uncovered is the point — dry skin browns, wet skin steams. | 4 Roast at 220°C / 425°F until the thigh reads 74°C / 165°F 55m Start breast-up. No basting, no turning, no foil. | 5 Rest 15 minutes, then carve 15m Cutting early costs you the juice. Rest it on the vegetables so nothing is wasted. | |
| 1 tbsp | |||||
| 1 tsp | |||||
| 700 g | 3 Toss and spread in the pan 5m | ||||
| 2 | |||||
| 1 head | |||||
| 2 tbsp | |||||
| a few sprigs | |||||
| 1 | |||||
- 1
Rub all over, inside and out
5m- whole chicken 1.6 kg
- coarse salt 1 tbsp
- black pepper 1 tsp
- 2
Dry-brine uncovered in the fridge, at least 8 hours
10m- from 1 Rub all over, inside and out
Uncovered is the point — dry skin browns, wet skin steams.
- 3
Toss and spread in the pan
5m- waxy potatoes 700 g
- red onions 2
- garlic 1 head
- olive oil 2 tbsp
- thyme (optional) a few sprigs
- 4
Roast at 220°C / 425°F until the thigh reads 74°C / 165°F
55m- from 2 Dry-brine uncovered in the fridge, at least 8 hours
- from 3 Toss and spread in the pan
Start breast-up. No basting, no turning, no foil.
- 5
Rest 15 minutes, then carve
15m- from 4 Roast at 220°C / 425°F until the thigh reads 74°C / 165°F
- lemon 1
Cutting early costs you the juice. Rest it on the vegetables so nothing is wasted.
The only two numbers that matter
Salt: about 1 % of the bird’s weight. A 1.6 kg chicken wants roughly 16 g of salt. Weigh it once and you will never need to again.
Temperature: 74 °C / 165 °F in the thickest part of the thigh, not the breast. The thigh is the last part to finish, and it is the part that is genuinely unpleasant undercooked. Everything else — time, oven position, the colour of the skin — is a proxy for this one measurement.
Why the fridge overnight
Salt applied early does two useful things. It dissolves in the surface moisture, diffuses inward, and seasons the meat rather than just the skin; and it leaves the skin drier than it started, because the brine that forms is partly reabsorbed and partly evaporated. Dry skin crisps. Skin patted dry five minutes before roasting is still wetter than skin left uncovered for eight hours.
Notes
- Trussing is optional and slightly counterproductive: an untrussed bird cooks its thighs faster, which is exactly what you want, since they need more heat than the breast.
- The carcass is worth more than the leftovers. Cover with water, simmer two hours with an onion, freeze the result.
- If the potatoes are not done when the chicken is, take the chicken out and give them ten more minutes. Resting is not a race.