Thomas Keller's Simplest Roast Chicken: Salt, Pepper, Chicken- really, that's all you need
Author & Photographer: Erica Hogan
I first came across Thomas Keller’s roast chicken recipe while reading through Buzzfeed’s roast chicken tournament. Thomas Keller competed against a field of recipes that included entries from the likes of Julia Child and Judy Rodgers of the Zuni Cafe. All of his competitors incorporated flavorings like garlic, herbs and lemon into their recipes, while Thomas Keller’s recipe included just chicken, salt and pepper. Despite this, according to Buzzfeed, Thomas Keller took the crown. I was intrigued. I read through the recipe. It’s really not anything special. He dries a chicken out with paper towels, salts it, and sticks it in the oven for an hour. Could this really be the best roast chicken? I, being the kind of person who spends hours thinking about roast chicken, have been intrigued by the Thomas Keller roast chicken ever since I read that Buzzfeed article. Could roast chicken really be so simple? Has everyone else been messing it up with their herb butters and spatchcocking?
I decided to find out for myself. I followed the recipe, as printed in Epicurious. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/my-favorite-simple-roast-chicken-231348
The first step, other than to preheat the oven to 450 F, and to rinse out the chicken--which I ignored because the FDA says not to rinse chickens--is to dry the chicken “very well with paper towels, inside and out.” So I went ahead and did that. It felt pretty strange to shove my fist, full of paper towels, into the chicken cavity, but I went ahead and got in there anyway, because according to Mr. Keller, this is a crucial step. “The less it steams, the drier the heat, the better,” he says. I dried the chicken aggressively until I could rub it with a paper towel and the paper towel would still be dry.
After I dried my chicken until it looked flabby and wrinkly, I proceeded to the next step: salting and peppering the cavity. To ensure even distribution, I had a friend help me. I spread open the cavity while she sprinkled the salt and pepper. As someone who has never roasted a chicken before, again, it was a little strange to get up close and personal with a chicken.
Next, Keller says to truss the chicken. He says, “when you truss a bird, the wings and legs stay close to the body; the ends of the drumstick cover the top of the breast and keep it from drying out. Trussing helps the chicken to cook evenly, and it also makes for a more beautiful roasted bird.” Getting the trussing step right is tricky at first. The lovely people at Buzzfeed have made very helpful gifs on how to truss a chicken. After several attempts, I managed to successfully tie up my bird. My chicken looked very pretty tied up.
The next step is to salt and pepper the chicken. Keller says to put so much salt on the chicken that “when it’s cooked, you should still be able to make out the salt baked onto the crisp skin.” He says to rain the salt down onto the chicken for a uniform coating. The crucial points in this recipe seem to be the drying, salting and high roasting temperature, which all work together to create a crisp skin, so I salted and peppered the chicken aggressively.
The original version of this recipe calls for the chicken to be roasted in a sauté pan or roasting pan, but many subsequent recipes call for a roasting rack and say that the roasting rack is a crucial tool. I don’t have a roasting rack, and neither does my friend whose apartment I cooked in. Luckily, my friend is a very enterprising, creative woman, and made a substitute. She put ramekins down into a dutch oven, and put a steamer attachment from her instant pot over it. While the original recipe doesn’t mention this, subsequent edits to this recipe emphasize the importance of having the chicken at room temperature before it goes in the oven, so that it doesn’t have to cook for as long. When I googled how long it takes to warm up a chicken straight out of the fridge, I learned it would take an hour or two to do so. Otherwise, you can do what I did and hug your chicken (while it is still in packaging) until it warms up.
Once the chicken is seasoned, tressed and in the roasting rack/pan/whatever you have, it goes in the oven for an hour. Keller says it’s very important to leave the chicken alone for the full hour, as opening the oven door or basting it would make the inside of the oven cooler or steamier. My particular chicken ended up taking around an hour-and-twenty minutes to cook, so I had to open the door several times mid-roast. It still turned out fine.
When the chicken is done, Keller says to let the chicken rest for 15 minutes before serving. He suggests adding thyme to the pan juices and pouring over the chicken, but I ignored this step because I thought it would make the beautifully crisp skin soggy, and I wanted to cook vegetables in the rendered fat. I definitely made the right choice. The vegetables came out beautifully.
The Verdict:
The chicken came out beautifully. It was perfectly golden brown, with lovely, crisp skin. Flavorwise, it’s nothing crazy. It tastes like a very classic roast chicken. All the salt brings out the chicken’s natural savory flavor. If you want your chicken to taste like something more than chicken, then this recipe is not for you. But if you want something simple, or want to make a dish that lets the chicken really shine, this is it. Texture-wise, the chicken turned out pretty nicely. A roast chicken will always be a bit dry compared to methods that cook chicken in a liquid, but this one was pleasantly moist. All around, I would say it was a success. I guess salt, pepper, and some aggressive drying really is all that is necessary for a good roast chicken.