Roasting the chicken
Roasting the chicken is actually pretty easy. To roast the chicken I loosely followed this New York Times recipe, skipping the ramps, because where do you find ramps anyway?
Basically you need:
- A cast-iron pan (a 10-inch one is probably best, but I only have an 8-inch one and it seems to work fine)
- A good oven mitt (the cast-iron pan gets really hot and stays really hot!)
- A meat thermometer
- Some sort of non-metal stirring tool
- 1 whole chicken (this is where they usually suggest a size of chicken, but I find that all the chickens at my grocery store are about the same size, and never the size that's suggested in the recipe - it doesn't really matter that much)
- salt
- pepper
- garlic (as much as you'd like)
- 1 large lemon
- As much mustard greens as will fit in your pan if piled to the top.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees with the cast-iron pan inside.
Rinse the chicken and discard the parts that you don't want. Sometimes I trim little ugly bits off. Pat the chicken as dry as you can with paper towels.
Pop the leg bones so they're flat against the thigh. Rub the inside and outside of the chicken with salt and pepper. I usually use kosher salt but whatever type of salt you have is most likely fine (like that fancy Himalayan pink salt - so pretty!). Fresh ground pepper is also preferable, but use whatever you've got. If you cook a lot though, you should probably have some kosher salt and a pepper grinder around for everything. Cut up the lemon into quarters and stick it in the cavity.
If for some reason you're starting to cook dinner several hours ahead of time, people tell me that it's good to put the chicken uncovered in the refrigerator for a few hours and let it dry out. This makes the skin crispy. I've never started cooking dinner more than a hour ahead of time so I have no experience with this. If you're like me, just leave the chicken out on the counter while the oven is preheating.
The cast-iron pan should by smoking a bit by now and really hot. Carefully take it out. Stick the chicken in leg/thigh side down (breast side up). This cooks the dark meat a little faster so that everything comes out even and nothing comes out dry.
After you put the chicken in the oven, start to get some ventilation going. I've set off the fire alarm literally every time I've ever cooked this, because the high heat gets things really smoky. The chicken goes in the oven at 500 for about 45 minutes. That's for about a 4-5 pound bird, so adjust as needed. Use the thermometer to make sure you don't get salmonella (it should get to 165 degrees, although if it's a bit less when you take it out it will get there while it's resting). At about 35 minutes, throw in some coarsely chopped garlic.
Once the chicken is done, take it out, and remove the chicken from the pan and onto some sort of platter (I usually just use a chopping board). Don't eat the chicken yet. It will smell and look delicious, but you have to wait.
The pan is now full of delicious chicken drippings and garlic that has been cooking in the delicious chicken drippings. Throw in as much mustard greens as you can fit in the pan. Pile it up high. It will take a few minutes for them to cook down; just stir them around a little bit so nothing burns. Medium heat on the stove is fine. Be careful!! The pan is still really hot - you just took it out of a 500 degree oven! Speaking of which, make sure you turned your oven off.
Above is a picture of kale, not mustard greens. I didn't have any mustard greens.
Don't cut into the chicken until the greens are all done.
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