How to Roast Chicken
by Maggie Noble
Quick Note: Influence for the following technique comes from Judy Roger’s Roast Chicken recipe from Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. Many sites have shared her exact recipe. We follow her method for dry brining but the following is the way we’ve come to do it at the noble home after many trials.
We roast a chicken a couple of times a month. The more you do it, the better you’ll be at it. We encourage you to try many different methods. You’ll find the one you like and you’ll stick with it. Maybe you’ll come up with your own original recipe and you can share it with us!
REFRESHER
If this is your first time trying this method, please read the entire recipe before getting started. If you’ve done this before, here are the quick basics:
Dry brine bird on roasting rack for 1-3 days (method below). Skip this step if you decided to roast a fresh (not frozen) bird tonight.
Preheat oven to 425F
Pull bird out of refrigerator to rest at room temp for 15 - 20 minutes before roasting. If you did not dry brined, pat with paper-towel and season heavily with salt and pepper.
If you did dry brine, your bird should be plenty salty, just add pepper.
Butter the bottom of a saute pan that is large enough to hold your bird. Place chicken breast side down in the buttered pan and roast at 425F for 40 minutes.
Carefully flip bird breast side up and roast for another 20 - 30 minutes. Keep oven temperature at 425F. Carefully check to see if skin is stuck to the pan. You may need to use a spatula to gently scrape breast skin before flipping.
Check for doneness by placing meat thermometer in thigh, careful not to hit any bone. Look for a reading of 165F. If it reads higher, no sweat. Your bird will be juicy.
Remove from oven and rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
Carve (method below) and serve.
SERVES up to 4 Adults
TOTAL TIME as long as 3 days or as short as 4 hours
TOTAL COOK TIME 60 - 90 minutes
INGREDIENTS
whole chicken fresh, 3 to 4 pounds
salt 1/4 cup, maybe a bit more
pepper pinches to season
If making a quick pan gravy:
white wine 1/4 cup
chicken stock 1 cup
butter 1 Tablespoon
salt and pepper
TOOLS
poultry cutting board or plate
paper towel
roasting rack
roasting pan
tongs
METHOD
Dinner at 6:30 Sample Timeline (Adjust for your desired time):
2:00 pm DRY BRINE
Note: dry brining overnight or even two days before is best but this dry brine can be done before leaving for work in the morning if you roast the chicken in one day. The 2pm time above is a sample indicating as little as 2 hours of a dry brine is better than nothing.
Prepare a place for the bird to brine by laying out paper towel to cover a dishwasher safe cutting board or plate. Whatever you use, make sure to have space in your refrigerator.
Place roasting rack over lined plate.
Take the bird out of the package over the sink. Be sure to remove the neck or pack of innards in the cavity. Save for stock or discard.
Pat the entire bird, back and front, dry with paper towel
Rub salt all over the bird, back and front. Stick your fingers under the breast skin to work salt up onto the breasts all the way up to the neck. Careful not to tear the skin but if you do, just finish the salting job and lay the skin wear it should be. Turn bird over and do the same for the thighs by sticking fingers up the small openings for either thigh near the tail.
Flip bird to breast side up and sprinkle remaining salt on top of salt-rubbed skin. Basically, you can’t over salt it.
Put bird back in refrigerator breast side up to brine for at least 2 hours and at most 3 days. The longer it brines, the better the flavor.
4:15 PREHEAT OVEN to 450F for 30 minutes
Your oven needs to be HOT when you roast this bird.
Pull chicken out of refrigerator to rest at room temperature
Pat the chicken really dry with paper towel. If you have brined overnight or up to 3 days, you won’t have to do this. The skin will be very dried out (best for crisping).
Season with salt and pepper if your bird was wet and you needed to pat it dry. Skip this salt if you dry brined overnight or over the course of a couple days. Use pepper only if skin is dry.
4:40 BIRD IN OVEN at 450F
roast breast down for 40 minutes
5:20 FLIP to breast side up
Using a long set of kitchen tongs or a clean kitchen towel, flip the bird to breast side up and continue to roast for 40 minutes. Careful of the hot juices, go in through the large bottom cavity to flip rather than the neck.
6:00 CHECK TEMP
Take the roasting dish out of the oven and insert the thermometer into the thigh meat, being sure to avoid any bone. The bone heats faster than flesh so you will get a false read if you hit bone.
The FDA recommends poultry be served at 165F. At this point in roasting, you will most likely see a reading of 170F or higher. Don’t worry, your meat shouldn’t be overcooked at this temp. However, your chicken is done! If you are still looking for crispier skin and more color, continue to roast for 5- 10 more minutes.
6:00 REST
This step is critical. The meat is continuing to cook even when the bird is out of the oven (carry over cooking). The juices will be absorbed into the meat as the temperature drops. If you carve immediately, you’ll have a heck of a time with the molten hot bird and its lava-like eruption of juice.
If your thigh meat is reading over 165F, pull bird from oven and rest for as little as 10 or as much as 30 minutes. You can always flash it after carving (put it back in the oven to reheat at 400F for 5 minutes) to serve hot.
6:15 CARVE
Slit the skin that connects the legs to the breast first. Cut the skin and then carefully lift the bird up and over the roasting pan using tongues or a clean kitchen towel to catch the excess juices.
Heat the cooking juices on the stove and add about a 1/4 cup white wine, 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 Tablespoon of butter as well as salt and pepper to make a quick gravy. Bring to a boil, taste for seasoning, strain and serve.
6:25 FLASH if needed
You can do this on your service dish if it is oven safe or carefully place your cut pieces back in roasting pan if service dish is not oven safe.
6:30 SERVE
NOTES ON CARVING
Carving a chicken takes practice but as long as you get meat off of the bird and in front of your diners, that is all you need to do. If it looks ugly the first time, don’t sweat it. Nobody gets it on their first go, even professional culinary students. Like everything worth getting good at, it takes practice.
Carving in 6 steps:
Start breast side up. Make sure to slit the skin that connects the legs to the breast first. Cut the skin and then carefully lift the bird up and over the roasting pan using tongs or a clean kitchen towel to catch the excess juices. Heat the cooking juices on the stove and follow the directions above make a quick gravy.
Put the bird back on the cutting board breast side up. Holding on to the drumstick, work your knife back in a gentle sawing motion to cut through the slit you already made working towards the back of the chicken. When you can’t go any further breast side up, flip the bird over.
Gently work the tip of your knife over the back of the bird, working towards removing the whole thigh. Don’t forget to run the knife over the oyster of the chicken or the sot-l’y-laisse, (the fool leaves it). This is the tender juicy dark meat that comes in a pair on either side of the spine just above the thigh. It’s usually gobbled up while carving.
Continue to work your knife between the spine and the thigh while holding on to the drumstick. Pause and put the knife down. Pull the drumstick back towards the spine like you’re opening the legs up really wide. Wait for the ‘crack’ then pick up your knife and find the tendon that connects the thigh to the bird and cut through, the thigh should come off. Set skin it side up on cutting board. Serve the thigh and drumstick together or, to serve separately, slice the skin and flesh of the drumstick until you hit bone (do this where the drumstick connects to the thigh on the inside of the joint, where it bends like a knee) pull the drumstick away from the thigh until you hear a crack, cut the tendon that connects the two to remove the drumstick. Repeat this from Step 3 on the other side.
Return the bird to breast side up. Take your knife and gently slit the skin running down the right side of the breast bone. Work that cut again to go a little deeper. You are gently working the knife down the breast along the rib cage to eventually remove the whole breast (just meat, not bone). Let gravity and pushing the knife against the breast meat help you, it’s not all cutting.
Take the tip of your knife to the bottom tip of the breast towards the bottom of the bird where the meat connects with cartilage/bone. Gently work the tip of your knife up towards the neck of the bird, carefully going above the bone. The meat should fall of once you get to the top of the bird. The wings should still be connected. You can serve like this or lay the breast flat on the cutting board and cut the breast in half at an angle. Leave the smaller end of the breast a little bigger as whoever gets the top will get more meat and a wing. I like to remove and serve the wings, discarding the tips, and slice the breast in 1 inch pieces, I find it stretches the servings a little further if you have 4 adults and some kids. Repeat this on the other side.
Keep the carcass. Throw it into some water and simmer while you’re eating and cleaning up to make a quick basic stock. Pick off any excess meat beforehand, of course.
