Just a roasted chicken. I roast chickens all the time… They are delicious and fun to cook and eat. You can make chicken salad with the leftovers, stock from the bones, and so on. Plus, it always bothered me that a whole chicken is often cheaper than a pack of two small boneless breasts. Anyway, I’m always trying different recipes and experimenting with temperatures, rubs, fillings for the cavity, beer cans, etc. But it’s easy to forget that sometimes less is more and a roasted chicken can be the best example of that. Specifically, Thomas Keller’s roasted chicken recipe which (if you don’t count optional brine or pan sauce) has all of four ingredients: a chicken, salt, pepper, and thyme.

There is a catch however: a chef like Keller only ever use the best ingredients so what works for him doesn’t always work for the rest of us. Plus, the simpler the dish, the more the ingredients stand out. In this recipe the size and quality of the chicken make all the difference in the world. Keller calls for a “2- to 3-pound farm raised chicken.” He should add, “without which, do not continue.” If you use a five pound supermarket bird, the breast will be tough and not that flavorful. This is the time to seek out a better quality (and smaller) chicken from the Greenmarket or a good butcher. If you do, you will be rewarded with one of the simplest yet most delicious meals you can make at home.

A giant plate of buttermilk fried chicken with local corn on the cob. With these recipes from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook, Thomas Keller deliciously puts his stamp on two simple American foods. The buttermilk fried chicken is just a fantastic recipe—the breading is a basic but tasty blend including onion, garlic, paprika, and cayenne, but the real key is the lemon, bay, parsley, thyme, honey, etc., brine that gives the chicken a depth of flavor you don’t usually expect in fried chicken.

And his corn features two mini-revelations in the world of corn on the cob, if you’re not familiar with them: first, after cooking it’s slathered with emulsified butter, which manages to coat and flavor your corn in ways no amount of butter out of some ancient corn buttering device can. Second, it’s sprinkled with a mixture of lime zest and sea salt, and it’s hard to imagine corn without a hint of lime after trying it.

Prime, dry aged T-Bone from Florence Meat Market and Thomas Keller’s Leek Bread Pudding from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. The quality of the steak goes without saying, so I’ll talk about the leeks and Ad Hoc at Home cookbook for a second. This is a really nice bread pudding, with just the right combination of melted Comté, mushy bread, and crunchy bread to make this as good texturally as it tastes. I’ve only made my way through a handful of recipes in Keller’s latest book (like Buttermilk Fried Chicken), but so far I would highly recommend checking it out.

Thomas Keller’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken from the Ad Hoc cookbook. Keller modestly says this is the best fried chicken he’s ever tasted… I don’t profess to be an expert on the subject, but it’s pretty hard to argue with the sentiment. The combination of the lemon-honey brine and the spicy crust is really, really good. It was a little salty for me, but that’s an easy adjustment. Highly recommended recipe!

Of course, fried chicken should be enjoyed with Champagne! This was an OK grower bottling, Chartogne-Taillet.