Learn to roast a chicken!

Tonight's bird

Roast chicken is incredibly simple to make, and it never fails to impress that guy or girl you want to cook for. Hell, I live by myself and don't have anyone to cook for, but it never fails to impress me!

It takes about an hour to cook, with 90% of that time being unsupervised cook time in the oven. Seriously. Cooking a perfect roast chicken is far easier than frying an egg to perfection.

If there is one single food that will help you begin conquering the kitchen, it's a roast chicken. When you see that baby come out of the oven with the skin just the right shade of golden-brown, you'll begin to believe you can cook anything. I believe in you, that's for sure!

Here is the basic recipe from which to deviate: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015812-simplest-roast-chicken

You can make some simple additions that help, like putting 1/2 a lemon (quartered), 3-4 cloves of garlic (crushed with the flat of a knife), a sprig of rosemary (or other any other hardy herbs!) and adding your favorite spices to the salt and pepper on the skin (I like smoked paprika and chili powder), but all you really need is a chicken, olive oil, salt, pepper, an oven, and a cast iron skillet.

If this convinces a single person to try cooking something a little outside of their comfort zone, I'll consider it a success.

If anyone is interested a step by step pictorial tutorial, let me know. I would be happy to make one, post it, and tag you next time I cook a bird.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Happy cooking user-sub!