SEATTLE — Seattle native Chef Ned Baldwin came to cooking from a career as a visual artist and builder. This influenced him to appreciate the "building blocks" of recipes most certainly influenced his philosophy of, "Learn to cook one thing exceptionally well and you open the door to a multitude of possibilities."
Now living in NYC, Baldwin owns a neighborhood restaurant, Houseman, in lower Manhattan and has authored his first cookbook: How to Dress an Egg: Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner. In it, he introduces key kitchen skills that home cooks can build upon to get creative in the kitchen.
Scroll down for the excerpt on how to cook the perfect Roast Chicken and then transform it into something special like the recipe he shared with us: Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, Cashew Brown Butter, and Shards of Cheese.
Try it home and let us know how it turns out! Tag us in your photos on Instagram #newdaynw.
Recipe: Roast Chicken
Excerpted from HOW TO DRESS AN EGG: Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner © 2020 by Ned Baldwin and Peter Kaminsky
BASIC RECIPE, SERVES 4
I can get a raw chicken from fridge to table in under thirty minutes by taking advantage of a skillet on the stovetop to start. Then I resort to a rarely, if ever, used part of the oven—the floor. In most ovens, the heat comes from a burner or heating element underneath a metal sheet on the bottom of the oven. The oven bottom acts as a diffuser and functions as a burner underneath the skillet, allowing the skin to continue to crisp while the ambient air temperature of the oven roasts the bird. The only part of the bird that ever needs to touch the pan is the skin side. The skin acts as a barrier between the tender, moist flesh and the hot cast-iron pan. Me, I'm not too fussy about how the interior of my oven looks, but be forewarned that over time this foolproof technique might scuff the oven floor a little.
I remove the backbone as well as the ribs and breastbone before cooking the chicken. This speeds the cooking and makes it easier to slice the breast meat. You can make the chicken without doing this, but it will take longer. Deboning the breast gets the best and quickest results. If you don’t know how, ask the butcher to do it for you (supermarkets are often happy to oblige). Failing that, you can butterfly the chicken at home (this is also known as a spatchcocked chicken). To do it yourself, remove the backbone by cutting down along both sides of it with a pair of kitchen shears (don’t worry about the ribs and breastbone). After removing the backbone, lay the chicken skin side down on a cutting board and press down hard to flatten it.
PREP THE CHICKEN
- 1 organic chicken (21⁄2 to 3 pounds), butterflied and, if possible, breast bone and ribs removed
- 1½ tablespoons kosher salt
- A few tablespoons canola or grapeseed oil
- A lemon wedge or two (optional)
Salting the chicken in advance ensures that the seasoning is evenly distributed throughout the meat. This method results in meat with salt in it rather than on it.
Put the bird in a large metal bowl, sprinkle the salt evenly all over it, and rub the chicken around the inside of the bowl until all the salt adheres.
Note: Food geeks like me with a gram scale will find that a 21⁄2-pound chicken, after deboning, weighs 1,134 grams. Depending on your taste for salt, you’ll need between 1.1 percent and 1.4 percent of the chicken’s weight in salt (12.5 to 15.8 grams). Let the salted chicken rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours before cooking; the chicken is good to go for at least 24 hours after salting.
DRY THE CHICKEN AND HEAT THE OVEN
About 1⁄2 hour before roasting the chicken, turn the oven to 475°F and let it heat up (this may take a while). You want it plenty hot in there. Meanwhile, take the chicken from the fridge and pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.
COOK THE CHICKEN
Oil a large heavy-bottomed skillet; cast iron is my favorite. (If your skillet won’t accommodate the whole chicken, split it into 2 halves and use two skillets.) You want a thick coating of oil (more than a slick, less than a puddle). Place the pan over a high heat on the stovetop until you see the faintest wisp of smoke rising from the oil. Gently—really gently, so the oil doesn’t splatter and burn you—lay the chicken in the pan skin side down. Lower the heat to medium-high and cook until the skin turns faintly blond, about 3 minutes.
Transfer the skillet to the floor of the oven.
Depending on the size of the bird and whether it is deboned or just butterflied, the total cooking time in the oven will range from 18 to 30 minutes. The chicken is done when the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh registers 155°F to 160°F on an instant-read thermometer.
When the chicken is done, cut it into manageable pieces, put them on a platter, and serve as is, or with a squeeze or two of lemon.
DONENESS
People get a little nutty when it comes to chicken and doneness. We give timing guidelines in the recipe here, but it could be more, could be less, depending on the weight of the chicken, the type of pan you use, the heat in your oven, the fickle kitchen gods, and whether your soul is pure. My test is to insert a skewer or cake tester into the thickest part of the thigh and check for clear juices to seep out—that means it’s cooked through; the skewer should also feel quite hot to your lip. But the skewer test takes some getting used to, and you have to cook a lot of chickens before it becomes second nature. Or, you can just use an instant-read thermometer.
Recipe: Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, Cashew Brown Butter, and Shards of Cheese
Excerpted from HOW TO DRESS AN EGG: Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner © 2020 by Ned Baldwin and Peter Kaminsky
SERVES 4
Sweet potatoes and cashews share a certain quality of sweetness. Together with nutty-tasting browned butter, they make for a harmony of flavors and textures that can only be described as downright pleasing. Everything in this dish except the chicken can be made well in advance, so it is an ideal make-ahead option for a Sunday lunch or family dinner.
PREP THE CHICKEN
- 1 organic chicken (21⁄2 to 3 pounds), deboned or butterflied (see basic recipe, page 26)
- 2 to 3 teaspoons kosher salt
Salt the chicken and refrigerate it
MEANWHILE, COOK THE SWEET POTATOES
- 1¼ pounds sweet potatoes
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Fit the sweet potatoes snugly into an ovenproof pot and cover tightly with foil and then a lid. Roast until very soft, 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes. (The sweet potatoes can be cooked ahead and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.)
COOK THE CASHEWS AND ROSEMARY
- 1⁄2 cup cashews
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
- 4 tablespoons (1⁄2 stick) unsalted butter
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Chop the cashews into smallish pieces. Strip the leaves off the rosemary sprig and chop them. Set a sieve over a small heatproof bowl.
Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the cashews and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until the butter has mostly stopped foaming and has browned. Pour the cashews and butter into the sieve and then return the butter to the saucepan. Add the rosemary and cook over medium heat until the foaming dies down, then cook for another 30 seconds and pour over the cashews in the sieve. Transfer the cashews to a plate, salt them, and reserve the butter.
MAKE THE BROWN BUTTER VINAIGRETTE
- Brown butter (from above)
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Combine the butter with the vinegar and salt.
ROAST THE CHICKEN
Dry the bird, heat the oven, and roast the chicken as directed below.
PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
- 4 ounces aged sheep’s-milk cheese, such as Manchego
- Brown Butter Vinaigrette
- Sweet potatoes
- Roast Chicken
- Cashews and rosemary
Slice the cheese into thinnish slices; don’t worry if it crumbles. Rewarm the vinaigrette in a small pan. Reheat the sweet potatoes if necessary.
Cut the chicken and sweet potatoes into manageable pieces and place on a platter. Scatter the cheese, cashews, and rosemary all over and spoon the hot vinaigrette over everything.
Excerpted from HOW TO DRESS AN EGG: Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner © 2020 by Ned Baldwin and Peter Kaminsky. Photography © 2020 by Hirsheimer & Hamilton. Illustrations © 2020 by Gerardo Blumenkrantz. Reproduced by permission of Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Segment Producer Joseph Suttner. Watch New Day Northwest 11 AM weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.