Thank you Mr. Keller

Outside of gardening and mowing the lawn – which, I might add, takes up an unbelievable amount of time – we haven't made much progress on the house recently. Part of the problem is cooking. As much as we truly enjoy it, the process sucks up most evenings and leaves little time for after-work home improvement projects. A typical evening involves arriving home around 6 p.m., doing prep work, assembling the dish, applying heat, waiting for magic to happen, and then sitting down for chow around 7:30 or 8 p.m. By the time we're done, I have no energy left. (As an aside, Christ, do we need a dishwasher. I feel like it's an endless task – dirty dishes just multiply continuously. To think I used to say I enjoyed doing dishes. WTF?)

Anyway, just to make it seem like I'm doing something other than sitting on my ass, I'm sharing with you my favorite roast chicken recipe. There is nothing quite as satisfying as a good roast chicken, and everyone should know how to do it. Plus it's easy. Our kitchen is circa 1950, has an oven the size of a shoebox and we pull it off just fine. This particular recipe is stolen from Thomas Keller.

Shopping list:
- 1 chicken, free range if possible, around 3 or 4 lb.
- butcher's twine (ya gotta truss the sucker)
- 1 heavy roasting pan or large cast iron sauté pan
- 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme.
- 1 TBSP butter
- kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Meanwhile, take the chicken and dry it thoroughly, even inside the cavity (paper towels work well). Dry heat is the key here; otherwise you risk a finished product that lacks a really crisp, flavorful skin. After the bird is dry you'll need to truss it. This is not rocket science, and really keeps the breast moist. Next, rain salt all over the bird, even inside the cavity. You'll probably use close to 1 TBSP. Place the bird in the roasting pan or the sauté pan (I like my cast iron sauté pan for this purpose). Cook the bird for 40 or 50 minutes, until the skin is nice and brown. Remove the bird from the from the pan and whisk in the fresh time and 1 TBSP of butter. Baste the bird and let it rest for 10 minutes. You can serve it however you like – I take off the wings, remove the legs, and slice the breast off, serving one leg and one breast / person. The chef gets to enjoy the crispy, fatty tail. It's unbelievably tasty.

I especially enjoy it with some sautéed brussel sprouts and a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc or chardonnay.