Hello Again Old Friend

Hello again old friend. It's been a terribly long time since we have interacted, 2.25 years to be exact. My husband has been telling me for quite some time that I needed to keep this blog going, but a recent binge watching of Sex & City rekindled my interest. As I watched Carrie write her columns and filter through thoughts in her mind, I remembered how much I liked bringing this blog to my patients and friends on a weekly or sometimes even daily basis.  I can't interact with the audience of my books like I can with people here and for that I am very excited.

You might notice that the interface looks a little different. I just hope that you all will still have access to the vast library of recipes we built up together. To get things started again I thought I would once again share one of the recipes my friends ask for most frequently, that of the roast chicken. Roast chicken is a dinner staple that so many people love, yet are scared to cook. They fear the chicken being underdone, raw and riddled with salmonella, so they overcook it and dry it out. The key to a perfect chicken comes from three things:

1. Size - 3.5-4# bird
2. Heat - 450 degrees
3. Cooking time - 55 minutes

You have to trust that this equation will yield perfect results every time. A 3.5-4# chicken is actually on the smaller side and you will most likely find it with an 'all natural' tag on it. One chicken will be enough for 3-4 people, if you have a larger group for dinner I would cook 2. It is a wonderful item to impress guests of a dinner party with, and since you have almost an hour of cooking time without needing to pay attention to the bird you can go back to hanging out with your guests. 

Preparation:

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
2. Set up a roasting pan or Pyrex dish with a roasting rack inside it.
3. Rinse the chicken, inside and out (make sure to remove the bag of organs if it had one), and using paper towels dry off the bird inside and out as well. Place in pan on roasting rack.
4. Now we need to liberally salt and pepper the bird. And I do mean LIBERALLY - don't be shy here (notice in the picture that you can still see the salt and pepper after the bird is done cooking). You are going to give a good coating of salt and pepper all over the outside of the bird, top and bottom, and throw some into the cavity. You should be able to see the salt and pepper on the skin but its not going to be encrusted if that makes sense. 
5. The final step is to cross the chicken's legs and secure them. It doesn't matter which direction you cross them but for the ease of writing I will do it this way. Take a paring knife and cut a slit through the flap of skin next to the left drumstick. Holding the tip of the left drumstick in the center of the bird, pull the right drumstick over the top of the left and stick the end of it through the hole you made on the left side. All done! Legs are crossed!
6. Place chicken in oven. Set timer for 55 minutes and leave it. Do not open the door to check on it. When the timer goes off, removed chicken from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before carving. 

The great Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in Napa, California, suggests serving roast chicken with lemon wedges and stone ground mustard. These are delightful additions to your meal.

ENJOY!!