How to roast a chicken

The breast-and-leg problem

Breast meat is lean and dries out quickly. Leg meat is full of connective tissue and needs longer and hotter to become tender. Roasted whole, the breast is exposed on top and the legs are shielded — precisely the wrong way round.

Three practical answers. Spatchcock the bird — cut out the backbone and flatten it — which evens the thickness, cooks in half the time and gives excellent skin. Start it breast-down for the first twenty minutes and turn it. Or simply accept it, cook it hot and fast, and rest it long enough that the difference matters less.

Spatchcocking is the best of the three and the least traditional. If the roast is for the table rather than the plate, roast it whole and rest it properly.

The method

1. Dry the skin thoroughly, inside and out. If you can, salt it and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight — this is a dry brine and it gives dramatically better skin. See brine.
2. Take it out of the fridge 30–60 minutes before roasting.
3. Rub the skin with oil or soft butter and season generously. Do not add anything wet.
4. Put it on a rack in a roasting tin, or on a bed of thickly sliced onion and carrot, which lifts it and flavours the gravy.
5. Roast hot — 200–220°C. A lower oven gives pale, soft skin.
6. Do not baste. Basting opens the oven, drops the temperature and puts moisture back onto the skin you are trying to dry.
7. Check it is thoroughly cooked before resting. Poultry must be cooked through, and the Food Standards Agency publishes the temperature and the checks to make — use those rather than judging by colour, which is unreliable.
8. Rest it for 15–20 minutes, loosely tented, before carving. Use the resting juices in the gravy.

Getting the skin crisp

• Dry it. The single biggest factor. Overnight uncovered in the fridge is the professional method and costs nothing but planning.
• Salt it early. Salt draws moisture out, which then evaporates, leaving the skin drier.
• High heat. 200°C minimum.
• Do not cover it, do not baste it, and do not roast it in a covered tin.
• Lift it off the tin on a rack or vegetables, so the underside is not sitting in liquid.
• Do not stuff the cavity tightly. Stuffing slows the cooking of the middle considerably, so the breast overcooks waiting for it. Cook stuffing separately and put aromatics — lemon, garlic, herbs — in the cavity instead.

Afterwards

• Make gravy in the roasting tin while the bird rests. The fond is the whole point — see gravy.
• Keep the carcass and make stock. This is the cheapest good stock available and it takes three hours of doing nothing.
• Carve the legs off first, then the breasts off the bone in one piece, then slice. Carving on the bird on the table looks better and works worse.
• The oysters — two small pieces of dark meat on the underside near the thigh — are the best bit. Find them.
• Cool leftovers quickly and refrigerate promptly. Follow FSA guidance for keeping and reheating cooked chicken.

Common questions