Trissalicious

Perfectly Cooked Roast Chicken

There aren’t many hobbies where I can outshine my husband.  UnFortunately,  he seems to be naturally gifted at most sports and can beat me at every single board game.  His real talent however, lies in being able to keep the scores close enough that you’re motivated to keep on trying to win.  I remember a few years back we would spend some afternoons after work playing squash.  First one who scored nine points won.  The games were always pretty close.  One day, we were arguing about something, I can’t even remember what, but none of us was giving in.  After a while I finally said that we should just settle the argument on the squash court.

“You don’t want to do that.” he said.

I was confident though that given how close the matches had been in the past, my extra anger would surely give me an advantage this time.

So off we went to the courts.

He won the first game 9 – 0.  Then he won the second round, 9 – 0.

He was leading the third game 7 – 0 when I decided to throw my racket and walk off the courts.

I was beaten and humbled… and  we have never played squash since then.

Cooking has always been my domain.  The other day though, my husband expressed interest in learning how to cook something.   I told him that I would teach him ten dishes and/or techniques from a list that a couple of friends had put together after reading this list.  (Ma Po Tofu?  Really?  REALLY??)  We thought that we could surely come up with a much better list – but that a good roast chicken recipe should remain.    I chose Thomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken to start.

So here it is – Dan Thomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken.  It’s dead easy to make.  Get the best quality chicken (around 1.2 to 1.5 kilos in weight) you can find, pat the chicken dry, rub the chicken cavity with a generous amount of salt and pepper, truss the chicken and season with more salt on top.  Roast (breast side up) in a pre-heated 210c oven (fan forced) for  around 50 minutes.  Remove from oven, allow to rest 10 minutes, sprinkle with thyme leaves and serve.

Served with roast vegetables and dijon mustard, this chicken was hands down the easiest and most delicious roast chicken we’ve ever had.  Definitely a winning dish!

Thomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken