Ina Garten’s Crispy Chicken is a love letter to mustard fans, sealed with a lemon-zest kiss. A gentle roast yields tender, juicy meat, and an herb-y panko breading tastes like you’ve just stepped out of Ina’s East Hampton’s garden, as the Barefoot Contessa plucks a sunshiney fruit from the tree, snips a sprig of thyme, and levitates in a chambray button-down: “How easy is that?”
Until I tried this recipe, I was a boneless, skinless, chicken breast kinda gal. I’ve always aspired toward roasted-chicken-and-bone-broth domestic goddess status, but IRL, I have the cooking window for nuked dino nuggets.
Recently, though, I’ve been tempted by the dark (meat) side. I still think about how my art school friend tapped into her Kentucky roots for dinner parties by graciously frying up all sorts of chicken parts for our little “starving artist” community. I don’t think I fully appreciated how brilliantly the crunchy skin gave way to the kind of bone-in, rich meat that’s prized by umami-chasers. Forget about the iced layer cake that always came with it.
Still, I have no desire to mimic my Southern friend’s culinary charms. If you ask me, deep-frying is a messy, potentially dangerous hassle. So how can a noncommittal cook like me achieve crunchy, dark-meat goodness without the blistering oil bath? Enter Ina. This professional goddess serves up craveworthy crunch on a baking sheet in the oven.
Simply Recipes / Lauren Bair
What Makes Ina Garten’s Oven-Baked Chicken So Good
Her method is a snap. You begin by mincing the garlic and thyme, seasoned with salt and pepper, in a food processor. Then you add the panko, olive oil, butter, and lemon zest, and pulse it all to combine. The finished breadcrumbs have the texture of coarse sand with colorful flecks of herbs and citrus. If actual sand tasted this good, I would have eaten a lot more of it as a kid.
The marinade—let’s call it “Mustard & Wine,” which will be the debut single off my future acoustic album—makes this chicken moist as can be. Mustard lends tons of flavor to chicken, while its acids tenderize the meat. Wine does the same, and it’s pleasant to sip while you cook.
Carving a four-pound chicken was beyond my bandwidth for a Sunday afternoon, so my “whole chicken” became what I could find pre-packaged at the store: all drumsticks. The pack looked like one of those A.I.-generated images of chickens with too many legs, but it worked.
I opened it and did as Ina told me: Pat your chicken parts dry, season them with salt and pepper, then coat each piece in the marinade, and dip its skin side in the bread crumbs. Place the chicken on a baking sheet crumb-side up, and press on extra crumbs if you can. After about an hour in the oven, you’re ready to eat.
Each supremely satisfying bite has the effect of a flaky croissant, launching buttery bits into the air like fall leaves. You’ll be raining panko and loving it.
For the ultimate crunch, Ina recommends serving the chicken hot, warm, or room temp, but not cold. Personally, I’m happy to eat it after it’s had a stint in the fridge. Though the breading does lose crispness, there’s still some crusty texture, and I like that the skin stiffens up and sticks to the meat when chilled. The lemon zest shines through all day, so whether you’re straight outta the oven or on Day Two leftovers, Ina’s crispy roasted chicken recipe will make a goddess out of you!
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