Moisture and heat control are critical to crispy skin and juicy meat.
Key Points
- The key to crisp skin and juicy meat comes down to controlling moisture.
- Small details when it comes to temperature contribute to a great roast chicken.
- Implement these restaurant industry tips to make the best roast chicken at home.
A great roast chicken is a perfect centerpiece for Sunday supper. Done well, a whole bird has the ideal combination of crispy, flavorful skin with juicy, tender meat. But getting that skin perfectly crispy while keeping the meat nice and juicy can be quite tricky.
We reached out to a handful of chefs from across the country to get their tips on how to make the crispiest, juiciest roast chicken. All of the chefs we spoke with acknowledged that getting that iconic crispy skin on a whole chicken is actually quite tricky, and they agree on the most critical element is moisture control. Below are the chicken-roasting strategies these chefs use in their restaurants and how you can easily replicate them at home.
Pick a Great Bird
A delicious whole roasted chicken should start with a good-quality bird. “When home cooks ask me how to get restaurant-quality results, my first answer is always the same: Buy the best bird you can from someone who can tell you how it was raised,” says Marc St. Jacques, executive chef and director of food and beverage at Philo Ridge Farm in Charlotte, Vermont. He recommends seeking out organic and/or pasture-raised chickens that foraged for their meals and were supplemented with an organic feed.
If possible, find a local farm that raises chickens, or a butcher that sells meat from nearby farms. These chickens may be expensive, so simply buy what you can afford. Just look for a whole bird with tight skin, no discoloration and, preferably, the neck and giblets included (which St. Jacques says are perfect for making gravy).
Brine, then Air Dry
One of the biggest reasons restaurant chicken tastes so good is seasoning. It’s not just that chefs use more salt, it’s that they know when to season the bird. All the chefs agreed that brining is a critical step in making a roast chicken taste excellent, and it even helps develop a crispy skin, too. Among them, however, there is debate between the merits of a wet brine versus a dry brine.
Ryan Mcilwraith, executive chef at Boscoin San Francisco, says at the restaurant the chefs wet-brine whole birds for 48 hours and then air-dry them, uncovered, for another 24 to 48 hours with good air circulation. “The brine seasons the meat throughout and helps it stay juicy, but the drying period is just as important. Moisture is the enemy of crisp skin. You want the surface of the chicken extremely dry before it goes into the oven,” he says.
Some chefs say you can brine for a shorter period, even just a few hours, and others prefer a dry brine. Nick Bracero, chef at Armour House in Birmingham, Alabama, says you can simply rub kosher salt all over the skin and especially under the skin along the breasts and legs. Some chefs also recommend using this time to add black pepper and dry or fresh herbs. You can also make a flavorful compound butter and spread it under the skin before refrigerating.
All the chefs we spoke with have a slightly different approach to how long to brine a bird, but they all agree that you should store the chicken uncovered in the fridge, where the cold air will help the skin dry out.
“I like to truss my chicken and let it dry uncovered in the fridge overnight so the skin can become desiccated,” says Devon Pritchard, executive pastry chef and executive sous chef at Silverado Resort in California’s Napa Valley. “This will lead to an even, crispy skin.”
If you use a wet brine, always dry the chicken thoroughly afterward with paper towels. Whether you use a wet or dry brine, place the bird on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate it for at least four to six hours, but preferably overnight.
Dry the Skin Thoroughly
Even if you’re not planning to brine your bird, drying the skin thoroughly is still key to a roast chicken with texture contrast. Crispy skin and moist, juicy meat are textures that compete with one another, explains Alex Green, executive chef of Miletusin Lexington, Kentucky. That is why it’s so important to dry the skin of the bird well, to give it a head start. “Crispy skin is from removing moisture, rendering fat, and finishing with intense heat to brown and crisp the skin.”
Use paper towels to dry the entire surface of the bird, and don’t forget the back. Be sure to dry the cavity well and even under the skin (use your finger or the back of a wooden spoon to loosen the skin from the flesh).
Give Room for Airflow
Make sure there is plenty of space around the chicken, especially the back, to ensure even cooking. You want lots of airflow to encourage an evenly browned skin. Chefs do this by placing the bird on a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet (you can simply use the same one that you used to refrigerate the bird) or in a roasting pan fitted with a rack insert.
If you don’t have a wire rack or a roasting rack, Pano Karatassos, chef at Buckhead Life Restaurant Group and Kyma, in Atlanta, recommends using vegetables to help with airflow. He cleans, peels and cuts potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions, garlic and mushrooms and adds fresh rosemary and thyme. He spreads them in an even layer in a roasting pan or baking dish, then places the bird right on top of the veggies.
Let the Bird Warm Slightly
Move the chicken, in its baking dish, from the fridge to the counter for about 30 minutes while you preheat the oven. This gives it some time for the internal temperature to rise a bit. Letting the temperature come up slightly from the fridge helps it to cook more evenly. While waiting for the oven to preheat, you can spread oil or butter over the skin to encourage more browning.
Fill, but Don’t Stuff
Consider following this tip from Adrianne Calvoa Miami-based chef and restaurateur, and add some aromatics right in the cavity. “We’ll often fill the cavity with aromatics such as lemon, garlic and herbs, but we never pack it tightly because the heat still needs room to move.”
Pick a Temperature
There are many schools of thought on the best temperature at which to roast a chicken. Some of the chefs we spoke with prefer roasting chicken at a single, modestly high temperature (350°F or 375°F) for the entire roasting time. Others prefer a fast roast at a very high temperature; St. Jacques roasts the bird at 450°F until the juices run clear.
Several start the chicken in a very hot oven, then turn the temperature down. The thinking is that roasting at a high temperature kick-starts rendering the fat in the skin. Joey Ward, chef at Georgia Boy and Southern Bellein Atlanta, starts whole chickens at 400°F for the first 15 minutes, but then slashes the temperature to 250°F to finish the cooking low and slow.
Green uses the opposite method and starts the chicken at 300°F, cooking until the internal temperature reaches 140°F. Then, he removes the chicken from the oven and cranks the heat to 475°F. He returns the chicken to the oven and finishes it until it’s cooked through and the skin is deeply browned.
Several of the chefs swear by cooking whole chickens using a convection oven, a strategy you can employ at home if your oven has a convection bake (or air fry) setting. Convection ovens, similar to air fryers, have an interior fan that circulates the hot air inside the oven, to evenly brown the skin and help render the fat. Pritchard starts the bird at 375°F with convection for the first 15 minutes then reduces to 300°F to finish cooking.
Temperature Check, Then Rest
The actual cooking time has a lot of variability, depending on what temperature strategy you use, so it’s best to periodically check a whole chicken for doneness using an instant-read thermometer. These chefs recommend removing the chicken from the oven once the internal temperature of the breast meat reaches about 155°F and the leg meat reaches 165°F.
Allow the chicken to rest on the counter for 15 minutes, and the residual heat will continue “carryover” cooking the chicken to the USDA-recommended temperature of 165°F. Plus, resting allows the juices to evenly redistribute through the meat.
Our Expert Take
Roasting a whole chicken may feel intimidating, but with a bit of planning and some attention to details, it can be a very rewarding experience. Chefs recommend drying the skin, cavity and under the skin very well with paper towels, seasoning well, then drying uncovered on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet in the fridge. This will help dry out the skin. Consider roasting the bird at a moderately high temperature all the way through, or start at a high temperature and finish at a lower temperature. Just be sure the internal temperature reaches 155°F, then allow it to rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.