My daughter made roast chicken at her apartment the other night and before dinner was served, a fire truck showed up. She was crimson with embarassment, but the bird eventually turned out golden and juicy.

To get her meal rolling, I had walked her through the steps I take to prepare Barbara Kafka’s suberb recipe from her 1995 book, Roasting: A Simple Art. It involves cranking up the heat to 500 degrees for the first 15 minutes and then lowering it to 450 for the final 45 minutes. As you might imagine, that approach can produce some unexpected consequences. Where there’s high-temp roasting, there’s likely going to be smoke.

The best way to deal with that pesky problem? My buddy Nick Vergos, one of the owners of the World Famous Rendezvous restaurant in Memphis, Tenn., gave me some great advice once. (And this is a guy well-versed in dealing with loads of smoke.) He said it’s important to create a draft before you begin cooking, turning on the fan and cracking a nearby window. This is especially critical at the tail end of the first 15 minutes because you open the oven to add vegetables, onions, carrots and potatoes.

My daughter’s mistake was opening the door to her apartment, so the smoke was sucked into the hall and the smoke alarms went crazy. That’s one cooking lesson she’s not ever going to forget. 

I’m roasting chicken for Sunday dinner and that fan is already fired up. 

— Leslie Kelly