My family loves chicken cooked on a charcoal grill in the summer.  No barbecue sauce or fancy rubs for us.  I've tried different recipes, but their favorite is the plain grilled chicken, enhanced only with paprika and onion salt.  This makes it easy to prepare and cook, which is just fine by my husband, the one who mans the grill.  Of course, the charcoal grilling imparts an extra smoky flavor that you don't get on a gas grill, but either way is just fine.  We also prefer chicken cooked with the bone and skin, which makes the chicken more flavorful and juicier than when using boneless breasts.  (For a good boneless breast recipe, see Grilled Chicken Breasts.)  And to make the cooking even simpler, and to fit more on the grill if you're having a crowd, just cut whole chickens in half instead of using eighths.  Individual pieces can be cooked and turned to the cook's delight in order to end up with more evenly browned chicken, but the ease of having only a few halves to watch and turn may more than make up for it.  In either case, this chicken is delicious hot off the grill or cold the next day for picnics, salads (remove skin and bones and slice), or just snacking from the fridge.

This dish, adapted from a recipe by Chinese cookbook author Nina Simonds, requires a lot of preparation, but it is spectacular.  The velvety chicken, the crunchy vegetables, the noodles both crispy and soft, and the delicious sauce combine for a unique taste experience.  It can be a one-dish meal for your family (reduce all the ingredients to make a smaller amount) or part of a special meal for company.  I have included it in a New Year's Eve Chinese dinner party with great success (see our Chinese Dinner for Twelve).  If your gathering is an informal one, where guests can help with the preparation, this recipe is ideal.  There are lots of tasks that can be assigned to others – frying the noodle pancake, preparing the vegetables, mixing the sauce ingredients, even doing some of the stir-frying.  If you are making this yourself, marinate the chicken earlier in the day (keep in the fridge), form the noodle pancake ahead of time, and cut up all the vegetables in advance.  You will need a large round serving platter for this dish, one that is deep enough to hold all the sauce.

This is what I serve most Friday evenings. When we have company, I just make an extra chicken. Those large V-shaped racks will hold them both, and then I just stuff as many potatoes as possible underneath. Sometimes I include sweet potatoes for variety. The spices and melting fat from the chickens above are a no-fuss way to flavor and baste the potatoes. It isn't low-fat, but it's Shabbat, so go ahead and splurge. I put the roasting pan in the oven about one hour before we plan to sit down, remove it after the blessings, and cut up the chicken during the salad course. Potatoes should be removed to a separate serving dish and kept warm in the oven until serving. This is the easiest traditional main course that I know - once it's in the oven, you have time to make the salad, set the table, and relax.

Food Editor's Note:

I do not make a whole turkey very often.  I usually make turkey breasts, and roast them covered after an initial high-heat searing period.  This produces a lot of natural juices to moisten the meat and use for a thickened gravy.  But I decided we should have a roast turkey recipe on the web site for Thanksgiving, and so I read up on all the techniques, chose one, and prepared an early Thanksgiving dinner for my family.

My 11-pound turkey turned out beautifully and took only 1 1/2 hours to cook!  I was totally amazed at this, as I had always thought turkey took hours and hours to prepare.  The short time is no doubt due to the high-heat searing at the beginning (recommended by a Bon Appetit cookbook).  It produced well-done skin and plenty of natural juices that did not have time to evaporate even though the bird was uncovered during the entire cooking time.

Roasting this turkey was so easy and quick and the result was delicious.  I may have discovered a new main course to prepare throughout the year for my family!

Food Editor's Notes:  This is an easy entrée to make any time of the year, but especially appropriate on Thanksgiving for white-meat eaters.  If you use this technique, you will have plenty of natural juices for a thin gravy (pour some over the cut slices of meat to keep moist and/or drizzle over the stuffing cooked in a separate casserole dish) or to thicken for mashed potatoes.  (There is usually enough so that I serve both.)  The skin is usually browned sufficiently due to the initial high searing, but if isn't crisp enough for you at the end, just leave it under the broiler for a couple of minutes and that will do the trick – just watch it carefully.  Leftovers make excellent sandwiches, and don't forget to save the carcass for soup!