Roast chicken is one of Downton’s famous dishes from Season 1 when a chicken fell to the floor, chewed on by a cat, then picked up dusted off and put back on the serving tray and sent upstairs. “What the eyes can’t see the heart won’t grieve over.”
Roast chicken is one of the basic dishes that everyone should learn how to cook. While it is tempting to reach for the prepared rotisserie chicken at the deli, roast chicken is pretty easy to make, will taste better, and is good practice for when you need to prepare turkey for the holidays.
There are probably as many good roast chicken recipes and tips as there are cooks, and perhaps even chickens, which can make it really confusing for beginners. To add more confusion we really don’t “roast” chickens in the oven anymore–like our ancestors over an open fire–we bake them.
I am a no-nonsense cook so keep it simple and fuss free, particularly when it comes to roast chicken dinner so I always put root vegetables in the pan, whack it in the oven and expect to have a good meal come out when the cooking is done. I am trying to enjoy my day off to watch Downton, after all.
