Our Editors Love Katie Lee Biegel’s Go-To Comfort Meal

It’s comfort food season, so it’s time to whip out your soup pots and casserole dishes for upcoming cozy dinners. Everyone has a go-to dish that helps the household feel warm and comforted on cold nights, and Katie Lee Biegel’s pick is also loved by our editors.

On a recent episode of her new podcast All on the Table with Katie Lee Biegel, the Food Network star dished on the dinner that her husband requests time and time again.

“What is the dish you make that everyone asks for? Well, at our house, it would be my roast chicken with croutons,” Biegel shares during a solo Q&A. “That’s one that Ryan is absolutely obsessed with. It’s one of the dishes that I first made for him when we got together.” 

Our editors fully agree with Biegel and her husband that roast chicken is a top-tier dinner. Our senior editor Megan Ginsberg even makes one every week for easy meals. 

“Roast chicken is one of my favorite things to make when the weather gets cooler,” Ginsberg says. “With its crispy skin and tender meat, it’s ultra-comforting and can be paired with just about any cozy, cool-weather sides, from mashed potatoes to roasted Brussels sprouts.”

Biegel has her own delicious side that she loves to make alongside the chicken.

“I take a baguette. I slice it, I butter it, I put the butter side down in the bottom of a cast iron skillet,” she describes. “I season a chicken, whole chicken, set it on top of the sliced baguette and then roast it. And all of the chicken drippings go right into the bread and it toasts and it is so good.” Our associate editorial director Carolyn Malcoun also loves to incorporate a similar delicious hack in her roasting routine.

“Several years ago, I tested a recipe where you roasted a chicken over cubes of bread and it was so delightful, I’ve been doing that ever since,” Malcoun shares. “Really, anything you put under the chicken while it roasts gets especially delicious. I’ve also roasted chunks of root veggies under a chicken and they are also the best!”

Our associate food editor Alex Loh is also a fan of pairing both bread and veggies with a roast dinner, saying, “I roast the chicken alongside potatoes, onions and carrots for the easiest one-pan dinner. But my favorite part of roasting a chicken is all of the amazing juices that get left behind in the pan. If I’m roasting a chicken, I also make sure to have a great loaf of crusty bread on hand so I can use it to sop up all of those juices.”

We love adding a serving of veggies to pair with the chicken for a boost of fiber on your plate—Biegel likes pairing the chicken and bread with a fresh green salad. Plus, cooking up a roast chicken at the start of the week calls for an easy protein that you can add to meals throughout the week, like sandwiches, one-pot pastas or an easy chicken salad. Safe to say, you should definitely consider adding a whole chicken to your grocery list.