Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Food Network (or food media in general) has at least heard of Ina Garten. This East Hampton-based former shop owner and cookbook author burst onto the TV scene in 2002, when her show, ”The Barefoot Contessa”, named after the specialty food store she operated in East Hampton for years, premiered on Food Network and quickly became a sensation.
As a kid who used to love to turn on Food Network after school and watched cooking shows with my mom every weekend, I gravitated strongly to Garten’s calming voice and presence, her beautiful kitchen set, and her recipes, which somehow felt aspirational and accessible at the same time.
Those who hadn’t latched onto the Gospel of Ina Garten in the early 2000s (as I did) had a prime opportunity to do so during the COVID closures, when Garten’s social media pages gained huge numbers of followers and her cookbook sales skyrocketed.
During that time, home cooks were looking for comforting but slightly elevated dishes to help them escape the chaos of the world, even just for a single meal. I counted myself among that number, and while experimenting with countless recipes during those strange housebound months, I discovered an Ina Garten classic that never failed to brighten my mood: Ina’s “Perfect” Roast Chicken.
Even though the world has since opened back up, I still view Garten’s roast chicken recipe as a correctly named “perfect” dish. But what sets this roast chicken apart from the many other versions out there? Why is it so memorable as-written, and can home cooks do anything to make it even more perfect?
To get these answers, I turned to a group of professional chefs from the South who love Ina Garten and her recipes just as much as I do. Here’s what they think about Ina’s “Perfect” Roast Chicken.
What Is Ina Garten’s “Perfect” Roast Chicken?
Essentially, Ina Garten’s “Perfect Roast Chicken” consists of a 5- to 6-pound roasting chicken with the giblets removed. It’s rinsed, dried, and placed in a roasting pan. Next, you season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper, stuff it with thyme, lemon, and garlic, and baste the exterior with butter.
After tying the legs together with kitchen twine, you scatter slices of Spanish onion in the pan around the chicken and roast at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 1/2 hours. Garten includes an optional gravy recipe that can be prepared after the chicken comes out of the oven; it involves scraping the chicken fat from the roasting pan and whisking it with chicken stock and flour.
A Chef’s Take On Ina’s Chicken
As I previously mentioned, Ina’s roast chicken recipe got me through the darkest days of the pandemic and remains a culinary standby for me when I need a dish that’s reliable, consistent, and delicious. I’m not alone in this opinion, as all of our interviewed chefs agreed with my evaluation.
“Ina’s recipe is a masterclass in simplicity, which I appreciate both as a professional chef and someone who loves good food,” says said Nick Walker, corporate director of culinary for Whiskey Cake in Dallas, Texas. “There are no unnecessary steps, the timing and technique are spot-on, and the aromatics stuffed into the cavity add great flavor. For a home cook, it’s about as close to perfect as you can get.”
Kelli Bunch, owner of KB Table in Austin, Texas, particularly appreciates the fact that “every step has a purpose. I specifically like how she rinses the chicken inside and out (which is sometimes controversial with chefs) before patting it dry.”
Bunch also celebrates the gravy section of Ina’s recipe, calling it “an added bonus that complements the chicken perfectly! It’s such a comforting meal and is my ultimate go-to dish to make when someone has a baby or a special occasion—people love it!”
For Annie Berger, personal chef at Little Lady Chef in Washington, D.C., Ina’s roast chicken recipe is so appealing because “this recipe, like so many of Ina’s recipes, also serves as a template. Once you’ve mastered the technique, you’re able to create your own version of a perfect chicken—perhaps swapping the lemon for a clementine or tangerine, adding some paprika to the seasonings, and using some fresh oregano along with the thyme.”
Can A “Perfect” Chicken Be Improved?
When we asked Sophina Uong, chef/owner of Mister Mao in New Orleans and Little Miss Mao in Nashville, what she might do to improve upon Ina’s recipe, she said, “I think I would add the giblets into the gravy or maybe cook them in the pan, chop them up, and make a special treat for Jeffrey to enjoy during cocktail hour.”
Also, she would “bring the chicken to room temperature [before placing in the oven] for even cooking. [I’d] start at 400°F and then turn the oven higher to crisp [the skin].”
Finally, Uong suggests “basting the bird during cooking [and] maybe putting some extra butter under the skin to make it extra crisp.”
Walker agrees with Uong’s idea of tucking butter under the skin, and he also says that he’d “brine the bird overnight to help lock in moisture and season the bird all the way through.”
