Roasting 101: Easy Tips and Recipes

Defined as oven-cooking food (generally between 400°F and 450°F depending on the food) in an uncovered pan to create a well-browned exterior and moist interior, roasting requires little attention during cooking, making it an easy way to serve home-cooked dinners whenever the mood strikes.

Read on for roasting tips and recipes (like our Three-Ingredient Prime Rib, pictured) to give you the oven-cooking edge.

Why Roasting Rocks: Much like using a slow cooker, roasting is a set-it-and-forget-it technique. Once you've prepped the food for cooking, meat and poultry may just need the occasional baste and cut-up veggies will need to be tossed once or twice.

Recipe: Roast Pork Tenderloin with Acorn Squash

Best Food for Roasting: Larger cuts of meat, poultry, and fish that have inherent fattiness, such as beef loin, whole chicken, and large fillets of salmon, are prime candidates for roasting. Starchy vegetables like potatoes and turnips are also ideal for this cooking method.

Recipe: Roast Beef with Horseradish Cream

No. 1 Roasting Mistake: Pricking or puncturing roasting meat or poultry during cooking. The skin of the bird and the caramelized crust on meat seal in flavorful juices and moisture.

Recipe: Spiced Pork Tenderloin

Roasting Tip: Pan-roasting is ideal for cooking leaner proteins like skin-on chicken pieces and fish fillets. To achieve a golden exterior without overcooking, pan-roasting calls for searing the protein in a moderate amount of oil and then transferring the entire pan to the oven to roast until the interior reaches the appropriate temperature.

Recipe: Pan-Roasted Chicken with Citrus Sauce

Roasting Tip: To ensure even cooking and to prevent burning on the bottom, make sure meat or chicken is elevated on a metal rack. If you don't have a rack handy, rest the meat on a bed of cut-up vegetables, which becomes a richly flavored side dish.

Recipe: Garlic-Rosemary Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

Roasting Tip: Once cooking is complete, allow roasted meats and poultry to rest for at least 10 minutes. This gives the juices inside time to redisperse evenly throughout the meat, making it moist and easier to carve.

Recipe: Braciole with Grape Tomatoes

Roasting Tip: When roasting vegetables, try to cut them to equal sizes and vary the cooking time according to density. Softer vegetables such as tomatoes and zucchini will need less time in the oven than starchier produce like carrots and potatoes.

Recipe: Whole Wheat Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables

Roasting Tip: In many circumstances, both a main dish and side dish can be roasted at the same heat, so why not double up in the same pan? Be sure to determine which dish will cook faster (and add that part way through cooking) so that both parts will be done at the same time.

Recipe: Arugula with Roasted Salmon and New Potatoes

Roasting Tip: In the time it takes to brown buttered bread crumbs atop a fillet of white, flaky fish, the entire dish will be cooked through to doneness — an easy and fast dinner in minutes!

Recipe: Roasted Citrus-Crumbed Cod

To take the guesswork out of determining when meat or poultry is done roasting, just employ your trusty cooking thermometer. Proteins are cooked safely at the following temperatures:

Chicken: 165 degrees

Beef and lamb (medium rare): 145 degrees

Beef and lamb (medium): 160 degrees

Beef and lamb (well done): 170 degrees

Pork: 145 degrees

*Keep in mind that meat and chicken continue to cook as they rest out of the oven.