Some nights call for dinner to be extravagant with several complicated side dishes and main entrees, but nothing can ever beat the simplicity of an excellently prepared roasted chicken, luckily this recipe from Epicurious does the trick, as it allows you to show off your cooking expertise with minimal excess. This particular recipe from Epicurious, comes by way of Chef Thomas Keller, who is known in the culinary world for his dining finesse, and that expertise is made even more obvious in this simple, roasted chicken recipe that doesn’t require an exuberant amount of preparation or extra ingredients. What results from finely-tuned, technical cooking is a roasted whole chicken with flavorful and crispy skin that’s absolutely delicious to the last bite.

Ingredients for Roasted Chicken:

• A single 2-3-pound chicken
• Unsalted butter
• Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons of minced thyme
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions for Roasted Chicken

1. In order to properly start this recipe, you’ll want to preheat your oven to a heat of 450 °F. While you’re awaiting your oven to heat, you’ll remove the packaging from your 2-3-pound farm-raised chicken and rinse it. Dry your chicken extremely well with paper towels both on the inside and out. The point is to have it as dry as possible because the less the chicken steams during the cooking process, the better the final product will be because of the dry heat in the oven.
2. Next, salt and pepper the chicken cavity thoroughly before you truss the bird. Trussing is a cooking practice that ensures succulent, evenly-cooked poultry that looks as good as it tastes. Begin your trussing by placing the chicken breast-side up, and running the center of a piece of butcher’s twine under the neck in the front of the bird. Then, bring the string up towards the wings and legs and use your thumbs to tuck the wings in as you bring the string around towards the legs. Keeping the string tight in order to force the wings firmly against the body. The string should roughly follow the contours of the chicken breast. Essentially, you’re ensuring that the chicken will cook evenly by keeping the wings and legs close to the body and placing the ends of the drumsticks over the top in order to cover the top of the chicken breast and to keep it from drying out.
3. After your chicken is trussed, salt your chicken with a uniform coating so that the end result will be a crisp, salty, flavorful skin. Season the rest of the chicken with pepper, to taste. Afterwards, place your chicken into either asauté pan or a roast pan with the breast side of the chicken facing upwards.
4. Once your oven is up to 450 °F, place the pan of chicken into the oven. If you’d like, you can baste the chicken thoroughly with butter and the roasting juices throughout the cooking processes, but this recipe’s author suggests leaving the chicken alone during the roasting process because they are of the belief that basting throughout the roasting will create steam.
5. Roast the chicken until it’s done, which ought to take 50 to 60 minutes or until it’s reached a safe internal temperature of 165 ºF on a thermal meat thermometer that’s inserted into the densest part of the bird. Once it’s cooked, remove it from the heat, add your minced thyme to the pan, baste the chicken with the pan juices and thyme, and then let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.
6. Remove the twine that is trussing the roasted chicken, and then separate the middle wing joint. Remove the legs and thighs. Next, cut the breast down the middle and serve it on the bone with one wing joint still attached to each. Cover the meat with fresh butter afterwards, and serve with mustard on the side, and also a simple green salad, if you wish.
7. Enjoy your roasted chicken.

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