Best Crispy Baked Chicken

Every summer our family has a cooking competition at the lake house. This year it was "Who can cook the best baked whole chicken?" Most everyone cooked them outside either on the Weber grill or in the big Brinkman smoker. The initial winner was my sister Maureen. Her cooking technique was deceptively simple. She season a couple of birds, annointed them with oil and put them out on the Weber grill under a white hot indirect fire, then she took the kids down to the lake and swam for an hour and a half. When she returned up top the birds were done to perfection. The fire was out and the chickens were well rested but warm, the skin crispy and the meat succulent with abundant juices. I am an old chef and I was determined to win the prize so I analysed all the entries before I made an attempt. That summer we saw chickens impaled with beer cans, spit roasted, smoked over green hickory, split and grilled under a brick. They were all good but Maureen's nonchalant method was the best and I knew why.

It was the hot start and the slowly decreasing heat of the coals burning out. It was the closed undisturbed environment and the rest the chicken took at the end of the cooking process. I cooked my bird inside to better control the cooking temperatures.

1 four pound fryer

2 t. salt

1 t. freshly ground black pepper

1 t. garlic powder

1/4 cup clarified butter

2 T corn starch

1/4 cup water

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Make a slurry with the corn starch and water. Brush the slurry over the entire chicken. Season the chicken with the dry ingredients before the slurry dries. Put the chicken into the fridge for 15 minutes to dry out. Pre-heat the oven and the cooking pan to 450 degrees fahrenheit. Brush the chicken with the clarified butter. (If you want some herbal flavors add fresh herbs while melting the butter and let it sit until you wick off the clear fat.) Place the chicken on the hot cooking pan (I use a cast iron skillet) and place in the middle of the hot oven. Cook at 450 for 35 minutes. Then turn the oven off. Let the chicken finish cooking in the slowly cooling over for 25 minutes. Viola, the perfect baked chicken. Let the chicken cool for an additional 15 minutes before serving. The skin will be super crisp and the meat, both dark and white will be most toothsome and ambrosial.

Secret: Putting the cold chicken on the hot surface of the cooking pan jump starts the cooking process of the thighs and legs, so in the end the dark meat is thoroughly cooked and the white is just done and full of juice.

I won and the prize was the happy greasy faces of all the hungry kids.