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Every Man Should Know How to Cook
Cooking is a valuable skill that your wallet, your dates, and your health will thank you for again and again. A home cooked meal, even mediocre never ceases to impress and makes a man immediately popular and attractive. There’s no need to be a French chef – all you need are a few polished, simple recipes and a bit of practice. To get you one step closer we’ve compiled a battery of recipes that are cheap to buy, simple to prepare and idiot proof in instruction.
Every Man Should Know How to Cook – Roast Chicken
A roast chicken is a thing of beauty – simple, comforting, delicious, and cheap. Practically everyone likes it, except those tree-hugging vegetarians. You’re not stuck with one of those are you? For as easy as it is to make a decent roast bird, it’s surprising how many people manage to screw it up with extra ingredients, fidgeting with the temperature or making basic errors in preparation. To help you out we’ve put together our no-nonsense recipe that is minimalist in ingredients, detailed in instruction, and produces spectacular results with only one pan.
Kitchen Gear: You can use a roasting pan or even a regular skillet in a pinch for this recipe, but if you don’t have a cast iron pan, get one. They’re remarkably cheap (about $20) and you can get them at the hardware store. You don’t even need soap to clean them and it’ll be the only one you’ll need to buy for the rest of your life.
You’ll need:
One Whole Roasting Chicken (3 – 4 lbs)
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt OR 2 teaspoons of regular iodized salt
2 teaspoons Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons of thyme leaves picked from the stem
2 Tablespoons of Butter
Cost of Ingredients: $15; Feeds 3 – 4 People.
Chef’s Tip: Organic, free-range chickens are one of the many ingredients that really taste different than the regular stuff. Spend the extra $5 and get the real thing.
There are two critical factors to making good roast chicken – paper towels and kosher salt. You’ve got to get the bird as dry as you can before you put it in the oven to get that crispy skin and you’ve got to use lots of salt to get that milky, rich chicken taste.
Step 1: Wash the chicken under cool running water to get rid of the slimy juices and don’t forget the cavity! Usually three small organs from the bird are also included, the heart, liver and gizzard, and dropped into the cavity – get rid of them.
Step 2: Dry off the bird (including inside the cavity) with paper towels and do a good job – if you put the chicken in wet, you’ll have flabby, soggy skin.
Step 3: Put the chicken in the cast iron pan and pat the skin with plenty of salt and pepper. Some of it will come off so be generous – a tablespoon of salt is about right. Do it right before you put the chicken in the oven or it’ll make the skin all wet again.
Step 4: Put the pan in the oven, wash your hands and set a timer for an hour. No matter how anxious you are, constantly opening the oven door to check on dinner will only delay your meal so just forget it’s in there unless smoke starts pouring out or you hear a faint clucking sound which signals a defective chicken.
