Wow, I have to testify to this method. I tried it on Friday, then brined the bird and put it on the grill. 40 minutes later, I had the most perfect chicken I have ever prepared. I never would have dared to grill a while chicken at once, but this was a snap. Next time, I’ll probably divide it between the breasts because two pieces would be easier to maneuver for turning on a grill. Looking forward to just popping one in the oven too.
I have had great results stuffing butter and fresh herbs under the skin of the breasts and thighs, then roasting however.
The best chicken I’ve ever made:
You’ll need one of these. Ignore the claims that you can bake with it, I’ve had no luck there. But for roasting birds of any sort it is heavenly!
Rinse bird inside and out, and set in center of oven on it’s neck. This is easy if you turn the rack upside down and prop it between the handles.
Fill cavity with cheap Riesling, coarsely chopped onion, garlic, and fresh (if possible) marjoram.
Roast until brown all over and legs move about loosely when wiggled.
Pour out remaining wine and juice into a boiling pot. Bring to boil and reduce at high boil for 2-3 minutes. Strain and return to pan with lightly toasted roux.
Eat until even the merest thought of even the thinnest of mints makes your life flash before your eyes. . .*
- If that makes no sense to you, be grateful for your youth and move on. ;0)
I recently saw on America’s Test Kitchen, and intend on trying, a new ultra-simple roast chicken recipe they recommended.
Essentially: Heat an oven-proof skillet very hot on top of the stove. Thoroughly dry a chicken and rub it all over with olive oil, and salt and pepper it. Place it right-side up in the skillet, and place the skillet in the oven. Roast it twenty minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the chicken in there for thirty minutes.
They pointed out two things: the pre-heated skillet would start cooking the thigh meat so that it would be done at the same time as the breast meat, and turning the oven off and leaving the chicken in there would result in gentle heat at the end of the cooking time, so that the white meat would stay juicy and not overcook.
I intend to try this at the first opportunity.
When you say right-side up, do you mean breast side up? Thanks.
It would have to be - otherwise the heat from the pan + the oven would extremely overcook the breast.
Yeah, I thought so, but wanted to be sure.
Ha. I’ll second that.
Roasted Chicken was semi-successful. Smoke alarms went off like crazy and our chicken was probably too big for this recipe, but I like it in theory.
Are you my sister? 
That’s pretty much how my granny taught me.
I’ve tried just about ever variation in this thread. That said, this beats the pants off of all of them:NPR’s Roasting the Funky Chicken
Highlights:
-put small pats of butter under the skin all over the bird. I use grass fed butter for extra oomph.
-Rub rinsed, dry skin with olive oil or butter
-Use a grate underneath to get crispy skin all over
My additions:
-Meyer lemons and shallots in cavity
-Penzey’s Sunny Paris sprinkled liberally all over gives it a divine smell, taste and color
Side note: The USDA no longer recommends that you wash (rinse) poultry before cooking it. Any bacteria on the surface gets killed during cooking and you are more likely to make yourself sick through cross contamination that occurs during the washing process. So no more rinsing.
Now, if you’re like me and you were raised washing your chicken like it was covered in ebola and nuclear waste, this is a hard habit to break. I did stop washing my chicken though, and you can too.
Just thought I’d throw it out there as a related topic since so many of these recipes include rinsing/washing.
Here’s a little cheat: Keller seems to be very obsessive about not introducing any extra moisture. What I’ve done lately (and I should have mentioned this in my original post) is roast the chicken directly on the oven rack and keep a roasting pan of water a couple levels beneath it, so when the fat drips, it falls into the water and doesn’t burn up and smoke. Honestly, I have not noticed a difference in the crispness of the skin doing this, as long as the chicken was sufficiently dried to begin with.
Spatch-cocking (as mentioned in this thread) is awesome, too. Whenever I grill chicken, I spatchcock it. For an oven roast, though, I kind of like the look of it kept intact.
When you say “too big” was the problem doneness? It may take tweaking the times for your own oven, depending on the size of the chicken and the accuracy of your oven thermometer. But I also find smaller birds cook more predictably and evenly.
I’ve done the NPR recipe but, for my tastes, the plain high-heat roast chicken is my favorite (and most versatile) approach. But try all the different methods. Everyone has their favorite.
Here’s a third endorsement for this method. I actually usually do it at 500 degrees for roughly an hour. Sometimes I use my leave-in probe thermometer, but generally speaking, an hour at 500 did the trick beautifully in my old oven. I’ll have to figure out on the new one (when it’s installed) if that’s still true though.
My wife likes to do something I think she got from Alton Brown- she cooks a bunch of bacon in our cast iron skillet, reserves it and then spatchcocks the chicken and salts it, and cooks it in the cast iron skillet along with a bunch of pearl onions along with the bacon fat in the oven on a pretty high temp.
To protect the drippings and prevent smoking when dry-roasting at high heat: coat the bottom of the pan with peanut oil. There are a few oils which can withstand heat that high, but peanut is the one that I keep on hand for these situations.
It serves the same function as putting water in the pan, without the evil steam that destroys the skin on the underside. I personally find chicken disgusting, but my Mom would be happy if that’s all we served her.
ETA: HEre’s a handy reference - Cooking oil smoke points
That’s a clever idea I had not thought of. According to this chart, safflower oil should even go higher. I’m a little surprised, as I thought peanut oil wouldn’t smoke until up past the mid-400s.
ETA: Jinx! While you were doing your ETA, I was linking to the same chart. 
These litle Google races always remind me of the bible drills of my childhood. 
I tried this this past weekend.
Holy Moly - It was good. I was a little wary of olive oil in a 450º oven, but it didn’t smoke at all. The gravy was good, too.
I’m sorry, what does"right side up" mean? Breast side up, back side up?
If you have a convection oven, perfect.
Throw the amount of salt you’re using IN the body cavity of the chicken–as it turns, and as the fat renders, the salt will course through the meat while it’s cooking.
Black pepper on the outside, along with oregano and thyme. I often squeeze a little lemon over the finished product. Never had any complaints.
This.