Our friend Gabriel has successfully opened seven restaurants in New York’s West Village, all under the age of 30. Gabriel loves food as much as we do – possibly more. This is one of his favorite recipes. It is easy to prepare and the flavors burst in your mouth.
Oh Gabriel, how do you love your chicken? Let us count the ways…
“Christine – I love this recipe for its rusticity and even for its unoriginality. And I love this recipe as it’s great to feed two or can easily be doubled or tripled to feed more and to top it all off it’s inexpensive to shop for. I love a delicious, crispy skinned roast chicken for two more than almost anything. I began to cook by buying up cookbooks in college (whichever ones had the most photographs) and following instructions and doing my best to have my final product most closely resemble the picture which more often than not was the inspiration in what to cook that meal (yes, I absolutely judged my dishes by the cover if you will). So over the years, I have tried several different roast chicken recipes from all manner of cookbooks. I always had trouble attaining the crispiness I wanted when I followed the recipes exactly. Then one day, I was cooking with a chef friend of mine, who showed a pointer on getting crispier skin. Below, is my own recipe (more honestly a blend of probably 3-4 cookbooks, a friend, dining out and whole lot of trial and error and improvement) of my favorite to cook for either my boys or my lady.” – Gabriel Stulman
Ingredients:
- 3-3 1/2 pounds whole organic chicken
- 1 stick salted butter, room temperature
- 12-15 sprigs thyme, removed from sprigs and finely chopped
- 8-10 sprigs rosemary, removed from sprigs and finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- salt and pepper, to taste
- olive oil
Preparation:
Thoroughly clean and rinse the chicken, removing everything from the inside.
In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of butter, thyme, rosemary, garlic, a good 4-5 pinches of salt and 2-3 pinches of pepper. With the chicken breast side up and legs facing you, carefully pull the skin up (you may need to get your hand in there to help separate the skin from the meat) – do this carefully so as not the rip the skin down the center. With your hand, take the butter mixture and rub it generously all over the breasts and topside of the chicken in between the skin and the meat. Lightly rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil. Generously season the outside of the chicken (all over this time) with salt and pepper. Any remaining butter herb mixture may at this time be placed in the cavity of the chicken. If you have twine – tie the chicken legs together. If no string, don’t stress, it’s not the end of the world.
Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Place a large skillet – dry (cast iron if you’ve got it) on the stove at medium-high heat. Wait until that sucker is blazing hot and you see white smoke coming from it. Add enough vegetable or canola oil to make the bottom of the pan damp, but not soaking wet (some high heat oil that won’t burn – i.e. no olive oil or butter right now).
Place the chicken breast side down in the skillet and slide it around so it doesn’t stick. About every 4-5 minutes, rotate the chicken around on all sides so that the skin gets evenly browned and crispy. (A nice set of tongs – or even two tongs makes this job of rotating easiest without messing up the chicken – sometimes you need to hold the chicken on a side – but this part of the process is what gets the crispy skin – it’s what lacks in most recipes, but what will bring the chicken over the edge).
Once all the skin is brown and crispy (15-20 minutes maximum), place the entire skillet on the bottom shelf of the oven and cook for about 40-45 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken.