Cadence

This method is all I can do and absolutely the best I can do for you all at once when it comes to food: Ease, economy, and a meal staple which is both comforting and satisfying as well as elegant and attractive. If you can do only one thing well in the kitchen, it should be roast chicken. It will always be greeted warmly at any table and will yield hundreds of other dishes. I should send you no further into the world without this knowledge.

It will take a couple of hours requiring no more of you than a few initial steps but it is not a quick fix nor as easy as anything out of a make-dinner-simple brightly colored pre-made food box. Like anything else, it is half skill and half feel but once your hands know the cadence and your vision knows the desired outcome, it will be the easiest big finish meal in the arsenal. It has always been a Sunday chicken in our house owning only to the length of the cooking time, not to any difficulty in process.

If you simply must have a recipe then I suggest a book which was once recommended by a chef like this "I don't care if you have no money and you don't have a place to live, buy this book, " it is Barbara Kafka's Roasting and there is not a recipe in it that is not money in the bank.

Since this is a method for roasted chicken, it requires a ferociously hot oven. High heat is the very definition of roasting in my book. 350 degrees will yield you only a dry baked chicken. Be sure your oven is very clean beforehand or keep the fire extinguisher handy.


Into the roasting pan, throw a bag of carrots peeled and cut into large pieces and three medium onions cut in very large wedges (if the onion is cut small or chopped it will scorch and ruin the whole kaboodle). Coat with olive oil, then season generously with salt and pepper. Toss them about the pan until coated and be sure the entire bottom of the pan is covered in oil so the chicken will not stick.


Take a large roasting chicken and rinse it outside and in. Coat the skin generously with softened butter, then season the bird outside and in with salt and pepper. Don't be shy. Truss the bird if you know how, if not, don't.

Place the bird in a 450 degree oven and roast for about one and half hours or until the thermometer pops. Begin checking the thermometer after one hour. If, after one hour, the skin is very golden, cover the pan with foil or a baking sheet, continuing to check quickly every 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked.


Some of the veggies may be too dark to eat, salvage all remainders as they make a wonderfully tasty side dish, although not slimming.

I hope this serves you well to the end of your days.

Now for a fabulous giveaway of Tricia Lowenfield's children's book Be Kind, Be Sweet, here at Blushing Hostess Entertains. And don't miss the tablescape of Eve's crudite table there as well for the tablescape anniversary!

And be sure to catch Kimba's DIY party at A Soft Place to Land here, full of projects I am precluded from being involved in owing to being a menace with tools!