Whole Chicken

“Deviled” is just a Southerner’s way of saying “don’t forget the spice.” If you like deviled eggs, you’ll probably love deviled chicken, marinated in a blend of buttermilk, cayenne, and dry mustard, then coated and fried. Like most good things that come out of the South, this recipe demands a leisurely pace. You’ll want to marinate the chicken for at least a day, and then allow the chicken to rest in the seasoning for about an hour prior to frying. This is a supremely portable and packable recipe, since the chicken is delicious either hot or cold.

Cooking with a brick might sound strange, but it is the key step in this Tuscan chicken dish. The brick flattens the butterflied chicken so it cooks faster and more evenly, keeping the bird moist and tender. Orange slices placed under the chicken’s skin and a zesty herb marinade give this dish a smoky citrus flavor. Serve with a light salad for lunch, or pair it with a hearty potato dish and crunchy green vegetables for dinner.

The classic recipe easily serves four, but the Peruvian tradition is to serve each person a half chicken, so feel free to offer more generous portions. Pair this enticing dish with Peru’s beloved Pisco Sour cocktail for an authentic South American experience.

With only twenty-five minutes of active prep time, even a less-experienced cook can add this timeless chicken recipe to his or her repertoire. The simple dinner utilizes produce of southern France—olives, onions, and fennel—cooked in the same pan as the chicken and sauce. Substitute a combination of dried thyme, fennel, basil, and savory if you can’t find herbes de Provence. Serve this in the backyard with a baguette and a bottle of Côtes de Provence, and have yourself a true pique-nique français.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Mediterranean classics, check out the video classes.

This recipe is designed for rotisseries that don't sit directly over the flames. If your rotisserie does sit over the flames (or if you don't have a rotisserie), use the indirect grilling method described in the note below.

Cerciello marinates small chickens with garlic and herbs, then roasts them until golden. In summer, he serves them with a quick, piquant sauté of corn and peppers along with a chunky pistachio sauce that's so good, you'll want to make it all season long.

Roasting the birds over rosemary sprigs imparts a surprising amount of flavor.

"If gumbo is the national stew of Cajun country, burgoo is the stew of Kentucky," Ronni Lundy asserts in her book Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken. Because the stew is made in many different ways with a variety of ingredients, the "Burgoo Song" by Robert Myles claims, "You can toss in almost anything that ever walked or flew." Many early recipes for burgoo include squirrel in addition to chicken, beef, and pork. In Kentucky, Anderson County, which hosts its Burgoo Festival every September, is known as the burgoo capital of the world. Arenzville, Illinois, makes a similar claim. But the French lay claim to the basic concept of burgoo, and it's conceivable that the word burgoo arose somehow from the French ragout (pronounced ra-goo), also a term describing a stew. Burgoo makers agree • Burgoo should be made in stages: cook the meat first, and then add the vegetables.
• No less than 4—6 hours should be devoted to making burgoo. Some recipes call for a 24-hour cooking period.
• Burgoo should contain more than one meat.
• Burgoo should be prepared outdoors over an open fire.

The key to a delicious matzo ball soup is in the broth: lots of vegetables and aromatics, including slices of ginger root for a bit of heat, make a perfect vehicle for these matzo balls. Matzo balls can be a very personal thing: some like them light and fluffy, while others fall into the "hard as golf balls" camp. Filled with lots of fresh parsley and dill, these dumplings fall somewhere in between: not feather light, not too hard, but with just enough bite and presence to stand up to its flavorful broth.

We cook our chicken in two phases to keep the skin taut and the flesh moist and juicy.

Few dishes are as gratifying to prepare (and eat) as a simple roast chicken. Every cook should have this technique in his or her repertoire. It may seem like an easy feat, but making the best roast chicken—with crisp, golden skin and tender, juicy meat—takes some dexterity. The challenge lies in the bird itself, with the lean breast meat requiring less time to cook than the richer, fattier legs. Moreover, there’s the goal of achieving the proper degrees of crispness, color, flavor, and moistness. Many recipes require you to turn and baste the chicken as it cooks, or to start at a lower temperature (presumably to allow the inside to cook through), then finish at a higher temperature (to crisp the skin). The technique in this recipe relies on “fast and high” roasting, whereby the chicken is cooked in a hot (450°F) oven for the entire time. Keep in mind that roast chicken is infinitely adaptable, and consider this recipe as the starting point for creating your own variations. Building flavor can be accomplished in many ways. You can stuff the cavity with fresh herbs, such as thyme, sage, or savory; citrus slices; or other aromatics, such as garlic or onion. Or make a rack of sliced onion, then place the bird on top. Spreading butter over the skin makes it even more brown and crisp; tucking butter and herbs under the skin has a similar effect and adds another flavor component. (These steps will also lend much flavor to the pan sauce.) You can roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, or other vegetables along with the chicken for a practically effortless one-pan dish. Also, you may want to roast two birds, side by side (leaving room between for ample browning); with a roast chicken in the refrigerator—it will keep for days—other dishes are within easy reach. Shred the meat to toss into green salads or to add to soups, casseroles, or pasta dishes. Or combine it with mayonnaise for a sandwich filling.

A flattened, or spatchcocked, chicken will cook more quickly and evenly than when left intact. The parts that take the longest to cook (legs and wings) are conveniently on the edges (meaning they are exposed to more heat), while the quicker-cooking breast is in the center (where it is insulated a bit from the heat). The origin of the term spatchcock is debatable, but one theory has it that it derives from “dispatch the cock,” apparently shorthand for “prepare the chicken for roasting over a spit.” No matter its past, cooks today understand that to spatchcock a chicken is to remove the backbone and open it like a book. While most commonly used for chicken that will be grilled or broiled, the method also works well for roasting. To further promote even cooking, the flattened chicken is weighted with a foil-wrapped brick while it grills, a technique borrowed from an Italian dish known as pollo al mattone (“chicken under a brick”). Brining helps keep the meat tender and juicy, and glazing adds another layer of flavor and promotes browning. In this recipe, citrus marries the brine and glaze, but you can forgo the glaze and make a brine solution of only salt, sugar, and water. A good ratio is 1 cup of coarse salt (never table salt, which will cause the meat to taste too salty) and 1/2 cup sugar to 1 gallon of water. For best results, brine the chicken for at least 1 hour and no more than 3 hours (any longer and the meat can develop an unpleasant texture).

Use a store-bought roasted chicken to save time. To take this salad on a picnic, pack it in an airtight container and keep it fresh in a cooler.

Refrigerate the stock in airtight containers for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 6 months. We added canned broth to fortify the stock’s flavor, but you can replace it with water, if you prefer.

Look for soba noodles in the Asian section of your supermarket.

This version of a classic clambake was designed a La Caja China box roaster. If you don’t have one, use a large stockpot layered with 4 inches of seaweed, then loaded and cooked as directed, using a wood-fired grill or a wood-fired oven. Cover and cook for about 1 hour, then remove the lid and cook until tender. Note: You’ll need about 5 pounds (1 gallon) of seaweed for this recipe.

Roasting chicken under bricks creates an evenly golden skin and moist, succulent meat. The bricks keep the chicken weighted down and somewhat flattened, which allows it to cook evenly and more quickly than if roasted whole. Brining the chicken keeps the flesh moist. Any number of vegetables can be roasted as part of this dish, but I prefer just tomatoes and shallots.