Julia Child has been my summer obsession.
I’ve read several books related to Julia, and I started to actually cook from my mother-in-law’s copy of her cookbook. My most successful dish was also probably the easiest for the “servantless cook” to master — Poulet Rôti. Julia included multiple versions of roasted chicken in her various cookbooks and I will link up some recipes at the end of the post for you to try!
Although Julia appeared to be very laid back, I’m pretty sure she would not have approved of the one adaptation I made to her recipe.
I decided to use an upright roaster to drain off some of the fat from the chicken. I put the roaster in a larger pan to give it more stability and make it easier to handle and to catch any drippings that didn’t go into the little drip pan.
It came out of the oven with a glorious crispy skin and it was moist and delicious on the inside despite the upright roaster. Success!
I served the roasted chicken with corn on the cob and our favorite go-to summer dessert, fruit salad.
The web is full of recipes claiming to be Julia Child’s — this video is one of many. The guy drives me crazy when he calls the divine Mrs. C Julia Childs, but otherwise, it’s a good tutorial if you’ve never stuffed and roasted a chicken before.
While not exactly like Julia’s recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, this recipe is a simplified version and has the steps that Julia liked to use when she wrote cookbooks.
This recipe is from a 2000 edition of Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom and apparently Emeril used it on the Food Network when he cooked roast chicken.
The fun thing about getting to know my way around Mastering the Art of French Cooking is that it turns out Julia Child was right.
The servantless American cook CAN master French techniques if you just follow Julia’s instructions. She worked for ten years to create a foolproof book, and at least in the roasted chicken department, she succeeded.
Bon appétit!
Sounds and looks like a delicious dinner. Thanks for sharing.