Whole Chicken

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 12 hr (includes chilling)

In Chinese culture, noodles symbolize longevity and are often served at New Year celebrations and traditionally left very long.

This crispy chicken is accented with ginger and sesame oil, and served with a simple dipping sauce of soy, cilantro, green onions and ginger. Wrap the chicken in foil, and store the sauce and slaw in plastic containers; be sure to add a cold pack or two to the picnic basket. Fill a thermos with limeade, or bring along a cooler of your favorite beers.

Offer baked potatoes or garlic bread with dinner and watermelon for dessert.

This recipe makes great use of rotisserie chicken, available at most supermarkets.

The chilies add lots of flavor and a little heat.

This chicken is incredibly crispy and intensely flavorful, making it an exciting alternative to milder roast chicken recipes. Weighting the chicken ensures that each piece is of the same thickness, so they cook quickly and evenly. The weight also causes the fat under the skin to render, melting out and leaving the skin deliciously crisp. When you buy the chicken for this recipe, ask your butcher to remove the back and breast bones and halve the bird so that there is a drumstick and wing on each side.

The chicken is redolent of garlic, but not overly so; cooking the garlic cloves whole in their skins keeps the flavors in balance. What to drink: A spicy red from Spain's Ribera del Duero region. Try the 2000 vintage from this appellation, known for its rich blends of Tempranillo, Cabernet, and Merlot.

Chef Boulud prefers guinea hens for this recipe, but we found free-range chicken to be a worthy substitute.

Serve this with the Crispy Potato Galette, buttered green beans and a red Côtes du Rhône or white Burgundy.

Dry-rubbed before grilling, the delicious bird is then generously drizzled with a zesty sauce at the table-twice the firepower for twice the fun.