Classic roast chicken

Chicken -  there's nothing else like it. It's a blank canvas waiting for you to transform it into whatever you can imagine. 
They say a cook is measured by their roast chicken. I don't know if that's true but it is a good thing to know how to do. 

Julia Child (who, in my opinion saved North America from 1950 classics like the tuna ring) first showed us how to roast a chicken on the French Chef in the sixties. I sometimes wonder what life would be like if she hadn't come along. In my mind it's not unlike the what would have happened if John Conner had died and Skynet was in charge of dinner.

mmm mmm good...

The most important thing to consider when roasting a chicken is... the chicken. I strongly prefer an air chilled, grain fed bird at a minimum. They are easy to come by these days so why waste the time and effort only to be disappointed by the water laden, flavourless no name bird in the meat counter. Blue Goose  (Loblaws/YIG and Sobey's), Voltigeurs (McKeen's Metro and Glebe Meat Market) and Exceldor (Metro, Costco) are all good choices if you are in Ottawa.

Next on the list of success factors is oven temperature. This isn't a baked bird - it's roasted. Set your oven to roast. 400F is roasting.

This recipe works well with a fryer (1.2-1.8kg) or a smaller roaster. For a bigger bird you should consider dropping the temperature to 375F to promote more even cooking.

Some of the chicken voodoo (super concentrate stock) will bring it up to something special. This is not essential but it does kick it up a notch. Anything powdered and electric yellow on the other hand has absolutely no place in this recipe.

Finally, the pan plays a role. A cast iron frying pan is a good candidate. You need something that can move from a hot oven to the stovetop. If it has a metal handle hang a tea towel on it when it comes out of the oven to remind you it's hot. Everyone burns themselves once - it really hurts.

Recipe

1 decent chicken 
olive oil 
kosher salt
pepper
1/3 cup white wine that you would drink
1/2 cup no sodium chicken stock (Campbell's no sodium in the tetra pack isn't actually such a bad product)
1/3 of a ziplock bag of chicken voodoo reduction (or more stock)

Pre-heat oven to 400F. Pre-heat your roasting pan in the oven as it heats up. Untruss your bird and rub with olive oil. Season inside and out with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the pre-heated pan (this sears the bottom of the bird and prevents the skin from sticking to the pan - most of the time). Roast for 15-20 minutes. By now there should be enough rendered fat to baste the chicken. There's also likely to be some bits of fond (that golden brown stuff in the bottom of the pan). Fond is essential to success so don't just spoon it onto the bird when basting - the goal is basting with chicken fat here.

Continue roasting until the breast reads 165F and the thigh reads 175F. The thigh is almost certain to be done if the breast makes it to 165F so I wouldn't worry too much about it. 

Remove the chicken from the pan (this is where you find out whether the skin stuck). Tip the pan and defat, making sure to leave all fond and any drippings in the pan. Drippings, in my mind, are the brown liquid hiding under the clear fat. 

Place the pan over medium heat. Deglaze with the white wine, making sure to melt all the wonderful fond you have created. Reduce the white wine until it  is almost completely gone (this will make a mess of your pan). Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock and scrape any goodness back into the pan. Reduce by about half and add the second 1/4 cup of stock. If you are using the voodoo chicken reduction then add it now. 

When you get back to your chicken you will see some liquid has accumulated on the cutting board. Pour this into the sauce. When you start to carve up the chicken and it gives off more liquid pour this into the sauce as well. Reduce until you have a nice viscous sauce.

If you aren't using the chicken voodoo reduction add another 1/4 cup stock. You don't want to do this too many times though, because you will be concentrating any strange flavours that might be in the stock. Also, make sure you are using no sodium. If you aren't you will be concentrating salt along with flavour which you may not be happy about...

Serve this with roasted or whipped potatoes and some buttered green beans and you are golden...

Variations

This is a base recipe and you can go many different directions with it. 

Lemon chicken/chicken piccata 

Cut a lemon in half and put it in the cavity before you roast it. Squeeze the roasted lemons into the pan to deglaze instead of using white wine (catch the seeds). Follow the recipe from there. Pushing this a bit further, add some capers after the lemon - roast chicken piccata.

Mustard cream

Follow the recipe right to the end. Mix some dijon or pommery mustard with a bit of stock. Add 1/4 cup whipping cream to the sauce and then stir in the mustard mix. 

Chipotle

Replace salt and pepper with some creole or cajun seasoning. Add some finely chopped chipotle in adobo to the sauce at the end. 

Truffled

Add a bit of truffle salt or truffle oil at the end (truffle purists please don't shoot me)

Let your instincts guide you - almost anything works.