Cat Cora might not be as big of a superstar household name as Gordon Ramsay or Emeril Lagasse, but she is a trailblazing chef. Cora was not only the first female winner of the prestigious cooking competition show "Iron Chef America" but was also the first woman to be welcomed into The American Academy of Chefs Culinary Hall of Fame. So when the powerhouse chef doles out free advice, we listen. Cora participated in Reddit's Ask Me Anything, where she answered questions from those in the Reddit community. One Redditor asked Cora which dish every home cook should know how to make, to which Cora replied that a great roast chicken was "something classic that everyone can do."
A whole roasted chicken is simply more delicious than other ways of preparing chicken, but it can be an intimidating process for new cooks. Cora's tips for a perfect roast chicken begin with giving the bird "a good slathering of good olive oil." In particular, a high quality, cold-pressed olive oil, which she recommended to always seek out when cooking. Cora advised to use "good salt and pepper, and [rub] lemon and various herbs, like thyme, parsley, oregano" all over the skin of the chicken. She also said to put the squeezed lemon halves inside the chicken's empty cavity "to infuse more citrus" into the chicken as it roasts, as well as helping the chicken to stay juicy. You can also add extra herbs into the cavity as well.
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For specific directions on how to actually cook the chicken, Cat Cora said that roasting slowly is key. She recommended cooking the bird at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour to and hour and 15 minutes, basting the bird in its own juices as it cooks. Cora also suggested adding additional olive oil while basting to keep the bird moist. "It'll get nice and brown if you follow that," said the "Iron Chef" winner.
Even Cora herself struggled with the essential dish in the past during the filming of a television show where she cooked in other peoples homes. The lauded chef was roasting a chicken in their oven, but the oven was so dirty that the entire appliance caught fire, and the whole chicken along with it. While that wasn't exactly her fault, it's good to know that even celebrity chefs make mistakes, like not inspecting an unfamiliar oven for cleanliness.
An added bonus of roasting a whole chicken is the number of things you can do with it after you've had your meal. There are so many delicious ways to use up leftover chicken, and Cora said, "I use it in a chicken salad and it's always so flavorful." Even after all the meat has been picked off the bones, the chicken still has more to give you. Save the leftover bones and scraps for making chicken stock, or an easy chicken carcass soup.