I recently attempted something I’ve put off for years: roasting a chicken. It’s something that has always intimidated me, but when I realized our Rosh Hashanah would be spent as just our little family of three, I didn’t want to serve the identical meal two nights in a row. Night two was my standard brisket and squash casserole, but on the first night of the holiday I headed to roast chicken territory because it’s something that felt traditional and crowd-pleasing. It didn’t hurt that when I googled “easy roast chicken” I quickly found this recipe from Bon App that professed it was “The Easiest Roast Chicken You’ll Ever Make.”
I worked with two chicken halves instead of one whole to eliminate the need to clean it out/break it down and make a simple recipe even simpler. Place the chicken in a cast iron skillet, body up, season it heavily with salt and pepper and then brush melted butter all over the top. Don’t skip that part – it’s what gets the skin that gorgeous golden brown. Finally, halve a lemon and a head of garlic crosswise (aka the short/wide side) and place them face down in the skillet. I actually used two heads of garlic because the ones I found were mighty small. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 43-45 minutes. (I was able to go lower and shorter with the heat/cook time because I was using the halves.
It’s got 4 ingredients – FOUR – and is packed with flavor from the lemon and garlic (which pools in the pan to keep everything juicy). The garlic, by the way, gets all sweet and roasty, so be sure to pop it out of the skin and eat it right with the chicken. This took less than 5 minutes to prep, truly, and most of that time was spent removing the chicken from the package. Only thing I’d change next time is maybe adding some rosemary or thyme, but it’s definitely not necessary. It turned out so well, and I feel like this is a skill I can add to my resume.
Peaches to Apples 