Perfect Roast Chicken (Juicy! Crisp! Tasty!)

The secret to making a roasted chicken with crisp skin and super flavorful, juicy meat is to salt it a day in advance. Read on to learn why. This recipe calls for just a handful of ingredients and truly produces the best roast chicken.

There is nothing more satisfying to me than roasting a whole chicken. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. In addition to feeding my family of six*, it gives me a carcass to make stock from and enough extra meat to toss into a salad or add to soup for a meal on a subsequent night.

This recipe comes from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and the method calls for salting the chicken a day or two in advance. In The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Judy Rodgers explains in great detail why salting meat in advance promotes juiciness, improves texture, and makes sure meat is seasoned all the way through. In sum:

• First, salt dissolves some of the proteins within and around muscle fibers that would otherwise resist chewing.
• Second, although salt draws moisture from the cells initially, with time the cells reabsorb the moisture in reverse osmosis. Because the salt changes the proteins, enabling them to “open up,” they trap more moisture than before.

Judy writes: “When you heat these transformed proteins, they don’t coagulate and squeeze out moisture quite the same way unaltered proteins do; some of the recovered moisture survives the ravages of heat. All of this results in seasoned, moisture-laden cells, less tenaciously attached to one another than their unseasoned counterparts.”

Friends, the method works. This recipe produces a chicken with crisp, evenly golden skin and juicy, well-seasoned meat every time.

*I now roast two chickens at a time.

How to Make Perfect Roast Chicken, Step by Step

Salt the chicken a day prior to cooking. Use 1 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of meat. Store in the refrigerator.

The next day, pat it very, very dry all over with paper towels.

Heat an oven-safe skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes (without the bird in it). Place the dried chicken in the heated pan, breast-side up.

Immediately transfer to the oven, and cook for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven…

…flip the bird over and return it to the oven for another 10 minutes:

Flip it over again, return it to the oven, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes before carving it.

While the bird rests, You can make a simple sauce with a splash of water, a pad of butter, and a little lemon if you wish:

Carve up the chicken.

Save the carcass and make stock! Throw the carcass and any bones into a 4-qt pot. Cover with water, and…

… simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

Strain the stock.

Store the stock in fridge for up to a week; freeze for up to 6 months.

See how juicy the breast is?

Use any leftover meat for a salad:

Or a simple chicken-noodle-ish soup:

Print