Gordon Ramsay explains it all

Gordon Ramsay is one of my favorite chefs to watch. Part of that is because of market saturation, I'm sure; but, it is also because he has such respect for basic food.  It doesn't matter if he's cooking the most intricate and delicate gourmet meal, or something like the video above.  He makes all dishes seem like the most natural things in the world.  I've made this for friends and family, and all have thoroughly enjoyed it.  If you find a deal on fish with skin still on, I suggest some variation of the above.

This is what it should look like

My neighbor is super awesome.  She went shopping with me last week and when I bought those chicken breasts on sale, she jumped right in and bought some of her own...without realizing they were bone-in and included skin.  This is not something that she has ever dealt with before but rather than panic, she did what I suggested earlier we should all do more of...she used the Internet as her menu-planning friend.  I've included my own summary and a copy of the recipe below the fold...

Starting with a Chicken

Roast chicken is one of the best ways to get a lot of food for a little.  But the more I've shopped this idea around the more I've come to learn that few people really know how to roast one.

I make this for my friends all the time and they are blown away.  I have people come up to me in the grocery store (abashed) asking how one prepares a whole chicken.  Even more impressively, I had my mother over and while she can cook a chicken, she never learned to carve one.  I have a secret: this is one of those things that I learned from the Internet.

  
Here are some of the best links to get you started:

How to Roast a Chicken
This page from about.com is spectacular.  A no-fail basic roast chicken recipe complete with links to making no-fail basic gravy and no-fail basic chicken stock AND teaches you fancy French words for things you already knew how to do.  Adding chopped veggies to the roasting pan? You've made mirepoix.  Gravy? You've probably made a roux and bechamel or veloute sauce.  Aren't we fancy?

How to Carve a Chicken
This video is great.  I love watching chefs do things because they make it seem so easy (and not scary).  The first time I watched this I actually went to Target and bought a fresh new carving knife just to try it out.  It wasn't expensive (about $3).

What to Do with the Leftovers
Cheap Healthy Good is one of my favorite food blogs.  They have helped me out a lot when I'm in a pinch for fast recipes.  "1 Chicken 17 Meals" is one of my all-time favorite posts. All recipe links are included and they are easy to manipulate with whatever ingredients you have on hand. The sesame noodle/peanut sauce recipe might have redeemed my cooking skills in the eyes of my mother.  Powerful stuff.



Credits
Image: Roast Chicken a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from kirybabe's photostream