Roast Chicken with Chile-Basil Vinaigrette, Charred Broccoli, and Potatoes

For everyone complaining that the recipe is too salty, that is probably because you are using fine table/sea salt instead of kosher salt, which is what the recipe calls for. Fine salt weighs almost twice as much per unit volume, so you're almost doubling the salt if you're not using kosher salt.

For those of you complaining that the chile-basil-vinaigrette recipe is not included, you are missing that the chile-basil vinaigrette recipe is hyperlinked in the words "chile-basil vinaigrette," which for some insane and/or stupid reason is true of many sub-recipes on F&W that fail to make it obvious that there is a hyperlink there.

For everyone complaining that this is a ton of olive oil in relation to a tiny amount of acid, you're entirely correct. I would not use the word "vinaigrette" as a description of the oily drizzling concoction. It is, nevertheless, a really nice drizzling sauce for the chicken. Use it sparingly, and sop up the pan juices with your best bread. Understand also that the recipe makes way more sauce than you will reasonably need for a single chicken. You'll have plenty if you cut that recipe in half.

All that said, this is insanely delicious chicken. It's a ton of work, but it is worth it

Am I missing something? There are no instructions on how to make chili basil vinaigrette.

For all the work put into it I’m really disappointed. Chicken turned out to be too salty for my tastes. The veggies were good but way too much work to get the same flavor as easier methods. Won’t make again.

Good recipe, but here are my suggested modifications. The mustard marinade is enough for two chickens, so make half or just buy more poultry, and unless you want to use the back for stock, just buy half chickens or parts and use them, it would be find. In the chile-basil dressing, it was far more than you need, and I only used one cup of the olive oil and it was still way too much

There is a lot to say about this recipe. The concept is brilliant and the flavors are amazing. That said, I think there are some things that need to change about it and that make it easier to execute. The first one is that there is no need to split the chickens in half, just remove the backbone (spatchcock) them. Second, instead of a wet brine and a drying step, combine the two (kill two birds with one stone? :) ) and do a dry brine with equal parts of salt and sugar (and some corn starch if you wish). Generously season with this mixture and let sit for 4-8 hours and you accomplish both brining and drying. Third, I don't see a need for the step where you sauté the chicken to crisp the skin, it gets plenty crisp in the oven (and this lets you skip the step to split the chicken in half before cooking (it's easier to do after cooking)). Fourth, I cooked the potatoes and broccoli separately so as to let both cook evenly. Finally, the vinaigrette is WAY to oily if made as instructed. I used a several tablespoons of red wine vinegar - to me this is a vinaigrette that you want to be acidic as that cuts through the fattiness of the dish. Enjoy!

My husband said this was the best chicken he's ever had and I agree! Worth the time and effort.

Living a Ground Hog Day existence, Life Changing Chicken sounded like a winner. I brined it, let it air dry, put a marinade on it ( 5 roasted cloves and1/3 cup of oil? it wouldn't combine until I put the mustard in), and then roasted it and made the chile-basil vinaigrette. But like everything these days, it just wasn't enough. The chicken was VERY salty. We found that if we put enough yogurt on it, it was edible. So much work for so little satisfaction. My life didn't change one little bit, although I regret using that time to make this chicken instead of yet another inedible sourdough bread.

to tell you the truth, it wasnt all that. the "marinade" was a muddy paste made from creamed roasted garlic, oil, and dijon. not a real marinade and not that much flavor — neither instilled in the bird nor even as a sauce after. one wonders what it did and where half the costco bag of garlic went. the chili vinaigrette was basically a knock-off chimichurri, except too much oil (even after adjusting based on reviews) and not enough heat. the brining was half ok: the meat took on a v nice sweet-savory flavor. but the texture was bouncy. the drying out was worth it, tho: the skin got both crunchy and leathery, giving what's usually an insubstantial crunch that you begin remembering even while youre still eating it something longer to ponder, indeed, ruminate indulgently over. our sunday usual (jamie oliver's ryal roast chicken) is better and 70 hours faster. worth the work to explore and have fun. but it didn't payoff and it was awfully wasteful, esp because it was not over-the-top flavorful (1.5 cups of salt? 2 cups of olive oil? 6 garlic BULBS?) tho, we might air dry going forward.

Best chicken I have ever made. Super juicy and flavorful. Reading the steps sounds involved but actually easy to perform.

Very flavorful.
However very time consuming. Make sure you read all the directions. I feel that my brining didn’t make it salty because I only did it 3-4 hours . I also made marinade and put on after brine but not for the aloted time . I put some of the same seasoning on chicken to roast i also used the roasted garlic that brought wonderful flavor . We thought it was delicious

Yes, it was salty; I happen to love salt. The only thing I would change about this recipe is dial back the oil and amp up the red wine vinegar in the vinaigrette recipe. So yummy and a beautiful dish. I would make the broccoli on its own!

Agree with one other reviewer - not sure what I did wrong but this was only life changing in a negative way. Oil dousing would be a more appropriate word than vinaigrette - was actually an oil slop. I would recommend upping the vinegar significantly. Given all of the work, expected something spectacular and this wasn't it for me.

Heed the salt warnings. Way too salty. Also, after reading reviews I altered the vinaigrette and used 3T of lemon juice instead of red wine vinegar. My chicken cooked faster than noted. Overall, I though this was a good dish with some alterations. I liked pouring the vinaigrette over the chicken - it provided another level of flavor and it’s also beautiful.

The recipe for the vinaigrette is hyperlinked in the recipe.

The chicken was the juiciest I've ever made and it looked beautiful, but it was horribly salty...even the broccoli and potatoes were salty. Ugh I could barely eat it which was so disappointing after prepping for days. This was the worst Food and Wine recipe ever featured.

The chicken was amazing. Brine at 8 hours was perfect. For all those complaining of chicken being too salty, make sure you rinse the chicken and pat dry. Broccoli and potatoes were lack luster given the flavor of the chicken. Served with garlic rice. For vinaigrette, could easily cut back to 1 cup olive oil or less. Also added squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper to the vinaigrette. Lots of effort but definitely worth it. Will make again!

Reading these other reviews and I have to wonder what I did wrong. The chicken was much too salty, the potatoes were undercooked, and the vinaigrette was all oil. It seems unlikely that I would have messed up ALL the pieces of this on my own? I especially don't understand how the vinaigrette is supposed to work. With that ratio of oil to vinegar, no amount of whisking is ever going to make that come together.

I’m always up for a good Roasted Chicken recipe. I would rename this “ A Chicken Event”. I was excited to try this labor of love but I think and agree with other reviewers, that it’s too salty... and I LOVE salt! There are many steps. Brine, dry, roast, process, marinate, dry, sear, roast AND make vinaigrette. I think the vinaigrette needed more red wine vinegar. It was good but not sure it’s my lead or go to Roast Chicken recipe. I wouldn’t make it again.

I loved the process of making this recipe. I am a little concerned with leaving a chicken carcass uncovered in the refrigerator for a day or more. I think that this may work in a restaurant kitchen setting but not in a residential home situation. I also don’t see the need to “air dry” the bird. I think that it would be fine to move from brining to marinading and get the same effect with less time. Like another reviewer mentions I think this recipe is way too salty. I would scale back on the salinity in the brine. The vinaigrette was also too bland. I ended up processing everything for this in the food processor. The recipe calls for pearl onions. There is no direction on when or where to place them when cooking. In my experience with using onions I put them in with the “potato mixture” and they were fine. I could not find the mentioned red peppers for vinaigrette so I used the only red peppers I could find and they were mild. I ended up getting a Serrano and diced up in the mix to add some heat. Would I make this again? Absolutely but with revisions.

This recipe is delicious and very well worth the extra brining and marinating time. We did find the recipe to be quite salty, and next time, I will use less salt in the brine and on the veggies.

Absolutely loved this recipe. I agree that the garlic should be roasted and even completely make the marinade ahead of time.

Is there any way to get nutritional value on these recipes included? I can come up with my own, but it's time consuming to do for every recipe we want to try.

My god this was amazing. Well worth the combined 24 hours of brining, drying, and marinating.

Can you please add the recipe for the Chile-basil vinaigrette? It's missing in the directions.