Main Dishes

Cooking the Perfect Roast Chicken

Marjorie Druker, developer of the original recipes for Boston Chicken, says you can make any chicken recipe if you can make a great roast chicken.

roast chicken

Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine

Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan

Yield:

Ingredients

Instructions

Ian Aldrich

More by Ian Aldrich

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  1. I recalled the perfect chicken article and went to the archives to pull it up. One point is missing. Is the chicken cooked covered or uncovered. I’ve need roasting chicken for year’s and I usually have it covered for 75% of the cooking time then uncover to brown. I have been an avid Yankee fan (magazine) since I was a kid and I appreciate everything you do.

  2. Hi Patrick! Thanks for your comment, and your kind words about Yankee! We passed your question along to Marjorie and here’s her reply: “I roast chicken uncovered in order to get a crispy skin. I like my chickens a golden brown. If you have had success with your method you may want to stick with it or try a new method. Thank you for inquiring!”

  3. Hi Pamela! As the feature in our “Ask the Expert” column, we asked for Marjorie’s wisdom and knowledge rather than a recipe, but we hope that some of her tips will help you the next time you make your favorite roast chicken recipe. Thanks!

  4. I alwaysget asked to roast chicken,by my partner. this recipe blew his socks off. Thankyouso much. He’s a chef by trade. He was impressed. 🙂

  5. Hmm…my copy of the Joy of Cooking has a recipe for roasting a whole chicken that says the oven should be 400° and that you should cook it for [one hour for the first 4 lbs. plus 8 minutes per lb. above that], so a 5 lb. chicken would be 68 minutes. I love that recipe – always comes out perfect. It also calls for melted butter, salt and pepper, but calls for different spices (ground thyme and fresh rosemary). It does not call for a lemon wash.

    I would think that cooking a 5 lb. chicken for and hour forty at 425° or 450° would burn it or dry it out, given that 68 minutes at 400° yields a perfectly moist and fully cooked chicken. How does this recipe work with extended time and higher temperature?

  6. who knew there is was a way to “roast the perfect chicken”?? gonna give this method a try, after all, seems like Marjorie knows a thing or two about roasting a chicken 😉