Our all-time #1 chicken recipe will change your dinner routine and maybe your life!

Few things deserve the comfort food label more than a simple roast chicken, especially when accompanied by hearty potatoes and root vegetables. We have lots of great chicken recipes, so why is this one hands down the most popular? Readers come back to this recipe all the time for several good reasons. It’s perfect for any occasion, from entertaining to dinner any night. It’s satisfying to eat and simple to prepare. It’s also a one-pan meal that requires little cleanup and even less hands-on effort.And it’s economical. The whole family will be happy to see this hearty roast chicken and vegetable dish gracing your table week after week.

Related: 30 Easy Weekday Chicken Recipes Your Family Will Love

Our best chicken recipe

Readers seem to agree. OUR Roasted Chicken with Vegetables and Potatoes ticks all the boxes; It’s a five-star recipe and one of the most sought-after dishes in the Martha Stewart collection. This is why it’s a winner:

• To please everyone: Weeknight dinners are where an easy roast chicken dish really shines. Even though the chicken takes a while to cook, it’s definitely worth it. It’s a special feeling and hungry kids and parents can choose between light and dark meat and fill their plate with perfectly tender vegetables that roast in the chicken juices. Guests will be pleasantly surprised when you serve this dish as a main course. Often we expect something over the top, but a simple chicken dinner is always a welcome treat.

• One-Pan Wonder: We love one-dish dinners and so will you. Anything that doesn’t require a lot of extra dishes is a lifesaver, no matter the occasion. With our best chicken recipe, everything roasts together in the same baking dish, even the lemons squeezed on top of the dish to serve.

• Cooking without intervention: The only preparation you really need to do for this recipe is cutting the vegetables and seasoning the chicken. Surround the poultry with carrots, shallots and potatoes, then place the pan in the oven. Set it and forget it: all you have to worry about is slicing the meat once cooked.

• Versatile: The simplicity of this dish is its greatest gift. It’s so easy to experiment and try new things. With this recipe as a model, vary the meat, the combination of vegetables, serve it with different sauces, the options are endless.

Variants

Let’s start with the chicken itself: If you don’t want to bother with a whole chicken, feel free to use chicken breasts, thighs, or a combination of parts. Whatever your choice, we recommend using bone-in and skin-on pieces, as they will retain their moisture much better. And keep in mind that individual pieces cook much faster than a whole chicken, so roast the vegetables for a good 20 to 30 minutes before adding the meat.

Other vegetables to use: This recipe uses carrots, shallots and fingerling potatoes, but you can use any vegetables you like.

• Instead of carrots, try parsnips, beet wedges or halved Brussels sprouts, or use your other favorite root vegetables.

• Replace the shallots with equally sweet red or Vidalia onion wedges.

• Replace the fingerling potatoes with halved baby potatoes or 1-inch pieces of russet, Yukon Gold or red potatoes.

Advice

As you prepare this dish, we suggest cutting a head of garlic in half crosswise and adding it to the roasting pan. It will fill your kitchen with a pleasant aroma and you can add a few cloves to this dish or use them for garlic bread, garlic butter or another dish later.

4 Tips for the Perfect Roast Chicken

Once you know how, roasting a chicken quickly becomes one of the easiest tasks in the kitchen. Here’s how to get it right every time.

1. Brine the chicken: This recipe uses a technique known as dry brining, where the chicken is generously seasoned with salt and left in the refrigerator overnight. This way, the salt slowly permeates each layer of the meat, so each bite will be perfectly seasoned. A wet brine also works.

2. Bring the bird to room temperature: For more even cooking, the best thing to do is to let the chicken come to room temperature before roasting. When a cold bird goes into a hot oven, the exterior inevitably cooks faster than the interior, resulting in either dry or undercooked parts.

3. Dry it: Before roasting, pat the exterior of the chicken dry with a paper towel. The drier the skin, the crispier it will become.

4. Let the meat rest: The vegetables will take a little longer to cook than the chicken, so let them sit on the cutting board for a few minutes while they finish in the oven. Letting the meat rest will keep it moister; if you cut it right away, all the juices will spill out, leaving you with dry chicken.

Read the original article on Martha Stewart