Everyman’s Roast Chicken
America’s Test Chicken had an episode on how to roast chicken. They do their usual testing of temperatures, pans and tricks—cooking 30 birds or more to produce perfectly crispy skin, moist breasts and fully cooked thighs. Most recipes recommend a frying chicken (young and small) rather than a roasting chicken (older and larger) because they cook more evenly. Our butcher had a two-for-one special on roasting chickens, so that’s what we had. It needed to cook much longer than our recipe suggested.
We usually try to do something a little fancier than everyman’s roasted chicken. I believe I made lemon roasted chicken the last time because of a Howard Stern show. When I was working in Seattle all the guys would listen to Howard Stern on the way to work. It was horribly funny most days. In one of the most famous episodes he was going on and on for several minutes about how much he enjoyed the chicken his girlfriend cooked and how turned on he was afterward. A woman calls in and says that the recipe is from a recent issue of Vanity Fair. It’s called Engagement Chicken and it supposedly makes men swoon if not propose. Howard calls his girlfriend and confronts her live on the show. It was hilarious.
Our plain old roast chicken was accompanied by roasted potatoes and steamed carrots with ginger. We just mixed the carrots with butter and grated ginger after steaming. I convinced Janet to buy the four dollar bag of small multi-colored potatoes. The purple ones are purple all the way through and have a nice sweetness. We also made some gravy.
We used the leftover chicken to make hot chicken sandwiches, which is one of my childhood favorites.