Published January 1, 1996.
We wanted an easy chicken recipe that would give us juicy and tender white meat and dark meat fully cooked, all the way to the bone. Continuous basting and trussing both proved unnecessary for this ideal chicken recipe. We found that roasting the bird for 20 minutes on each side and then putting it on its back rendered perfectly cooked white and dark meat as well as golden, crunchy skin.
A three-and-one-half-pound bird should roast in fifty-five to sixty minutes while a four- to four-and-one-half-pound bird requires sixty to sixty-five minutes. If using a V-rack, be sure to grease it so the chicken does not stick to it. If you don’t have a V-rack, set the bird on a regular rack and use balls of aluminum foil to keep the roasting chicken propped up on its side. If using a kosher chicken, skip the brining process and begin with step 2.
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