Go to the Recipe: Ultimate Roast Chicken
This is a cool recipe. I was wondering, from a food safety standpoint, how this recipe holds up? I imagine that it takes around 2 hours to get to 140 °F (temp that you "exit" the danger zone) plus ~45 min to cool back down to 100 °F (out of the suggested 90). So that's about 3 hours right there. I know the standard recommendation is 4 hours whilst in the danger zone of 40-140 °F, but that's just assuming that it's the lower end of the 2.5-3.5 hour cook time. What if it takes longer? Then everything gets bumped up. I've only tried this once before and it took about 3 hours to come up to temp, so I wanted to be sure I'm not getting anyone sick. I use an instant read thermometer, so I am not worried about the temp being incorrect
What happened here!? Last time I checked there were few steps now there’s like a 100 steps and you changed the temps and almost everything, I’m gonna try it with all this changes you made
is this mammoth guide still coming out?
Videos won't play it thinks I'm a bot and I'm not
I. hung mine in my downstairs beer fridge. using a chain thru the top rack side supports
Oh boy, lets see if we can figure this one our Giulio. Great question!
First off to answer your questions it's actually tricky to reheat something thats been cooked to a core temp already thats a tender cut. That technique is great for a tough cut thats already been tenderized and all you need to do is reheat it. But in this case it will take about the same amount of time to reheat a whole chicken as it took to cook it in the first place.
I believe I can provide some context around what parts of this recipe can be simplified or corners you can cut to help inform HOW you might be able to practically fit it into the work flow of a restaurant. I am assuming you have a Rational oven.
DRYING TIME:
"Refrigerate until skin is completely dry, leathery, and translucent around the legs, 3 to 5 days."
-This step is critical but with a purveyor sourcing you air chilled birds and you have a good spot in the walk-in to hang them you might be able to get the hang time down to around 2-3 days. Never hurts to ask but if you're relationship is good enough with your supplier, they might be able to start this process in their fridges for you.
- Thoroughly pat your chicken dry with a paper towel before hanging to help speed up this process, it's easy and saves lots of time later.
FIRST COOK:
"Preheat oven to 170 °F / 77 °C or lowest-possible setting, with fan on if using a convection oven."
-I have had great results raising the temp of this cook, anywhere between 200-225 °F. You can shave off a couple hours here. If cutting down on the air drying time you can increase the fan in the Rational oven here to help make up some of that.
RESTING:
"let rest until breast registers 100 °F / 38 °C, about 1 hour 30 minutes."
-The recipe has the resting time as 90 min. Thats actually the smallest amount of resting time to get through the carry over cook and the internal temp of the bird starting to drop. If you're in search of perfection this procedure is great but can be skipped for amazing results still. I wouldn't go below a 30 min rest before moving onto the second cook (aka final roast).
SECOND COOK: -Again if you're using a Rational, unleash the beast! The recipe is written for a conventional oven and the Breville oven. But as you know Rationals can go much higher. Turn the fan up and crank it up to 570-580 °F and roast for 5-8 minutes.
Cook time day of: under 2 hrs
Do you think it's possible to set up the recipe for a restaurant? Perhaps by blast chilling the chicken after the initial cooking in the oven? If so, how would you finish the cooking starting from the fridge? A few degrees lower for a longer time?
Is this still “coming soon” or is it out?
Great question. I wouldn't say you can directly sub a 24hr dry brine for a 3 to 5 day hang dry. But I think you can find a middle ground that saves you some time. Yea, I would do 0.5% salt and air dry for 2-3 days. That MIGHT give you results similar to a 4 day air dry.
On dry brining:
Dry brining is great at pulling out moisture on the surface but it doesn't help with actually removing the moisture once it accumulates. If trying this approach I recommend gently patting the bird dry twice a day with a paper towel. The air flow in the fridge will do the rest.
Could I dry brine instead, or would the skin dry out too much? And if you can, would you use 0.5% salt, like in the brick chicken recipe?
Yes, those work great! We tested them during development, but didn't want to call for another piece of specialty equipment as a work-around for folks that aren't able to hang chickens in their fridge.
For the drying step, do you think one of those vertical chicken roaster things would be a good way to prop it up in the fridge?
I don't know, I see legs on the left. Which time point are you looking at (I don't want to watch the video again)?
I thought that until it moved to a different angle in the video. I bet a chicken on a hook would fit in that way. With all the table space why would it be on the side?
Looks like it is just an oven tilted on its side. Curious.
Did you all test the Breville oven that is vertical? I was looking for more information/video after seeing it in the background.
ChefSteps didn't sell Joule to Breville. CS was going out of business and Breville bought the entire company. You can thank Breville for reading this recipe today.
I have plenty of room in my GE fridge. So me lol.
IMHO, ATK has jumped the shark and is a joke now. After all, they "discovered" the 73-degree sous vide egg, did you know that? (jk)
Oh, I thought this update was the result of all those Chicken photos. Cool!
We've got a mammoth guide to roast chicken in the works that covers the most recent battery of tests, including a trial with elixir. Coming soon!
So - about the brine - aren't you diluting the chicken flavor by using water? I assume you tried a dry brine, why is the wet brine better? Did you try it with chicken broth/stock instead of water? I suppose it's possible that some (or all) of the water evaporates, so what is the weight of the bird pre-brine vs. when you first put it into the refrigerator vs. when you pull it out?
Another question: Have you ever tried using the Turkey Elixr with this technique?
I've tried it but didn't like the results, but I also only did a 5 day not 7 day air dry and thought that might be why (original recipe). I've been meaning to try it again.
In my fridge, 7 days is clearly superior to 5 days or 3 days when it comes to shatteringly crispy skin. However, the skin becomes so transparent you actually see the blood vessels, which is visually off-putting. I was hoping Turkey Elixr would cover that up without destroying the irreversibly crispy skin.
Yes, I wish they would preserve the original page for all new updates.
Here it is for the Ultimate Roast Chicken:
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/the-ultimate-guide-to-roast-chicken
Did you ever investigate whether separating the skin from the meat with your fingers before air drying helps at all?
Although they are apparently using no steam here, just convection. Of course, the convection speed in a Rational might be superior, I don't know.
All that information is in the written recipe. :-)
Yawn
Perfect excuse to invest in a combi oven. I mean, sure we can get great results without but who wouldn't love to have one at home? Rational is short for "Rationalize," right? I can easily rationalize buying a combi to myself but convincing others may be a tougher task.
No steam. The "Dry 100%" refers to the level of humidity. When set to "Dry 100%," the oven operates with no additional humidity.
Love the update, and love the fact that you kept the original around.
Challenge for the Chefsteps team: In the same video, compare technique by using a typical home cook set up next to the fancy commercial grade appliances. For instance, show a stocked fridge with the alternative method for the chicken set up. I'm betting a decent home cook might be able to get to 90% 'ultimate' without all the fancy commercial oven/cold storage appliances.
Just a reminder -- chickens have only one breast. When the instructions above call for working on 'each' or 'both' breasts, it means 'sides' or 'halves' of the breast; what the supermarket calls 'split breasts'. When the breast is removed, the cut for the entire breast is called the 'suprême' (this is different from the dish called 'suprême', which refers to the 'top/premier' method of preparation).
This is important, especially for translation of this recipe from English to other languages; English is one of the few that often confuses 'split' whole breasts for 'two breasts' on a chicken.
What does the "Dry 100%" setting on the Rational mean? Is it adding steam or not? (I have an Anova combi oven.)
Possibly quickly torch the exterior to finish? Like a Searzall or something similar
Hi, Question about injecting - in the instructions it says to inject brine but doesn't say how long to wait before poaching. If you poach immediately - wouldn't the water flush out the brine from the injection holes? I assume you inject and leave in the fridge overnight before moving to the poaching step?
The legs will hit a temperature of around 175 in this method, and be tender. The breasts will be cooked less.
Hi there, how tender do chicken legs come out if we just cook them to 150ºF?. In my experience they become tender at higher temperatures, but I haven't done this process. Thanks a lot
Who the hell (except a commercial kitchen) has room in their fridge to hang a raw chicken??? Nope. Going back to America's Test Kitchen for their recipe. Chef Steps is great, but damn folks, how about hacking a roast chicken recipe that we can actually cook?
I would have loved to make this recipe . . . read all the steps until I got to the Breville Convection Oven. I had to stop reading.
In January 2020 I started using my brand new beautiful Breville Convection Oven. It was a wonderful oven. However 30 months later the air fryer/ convection fan failed. Turns out that was a common failure of the Breville Convection Oven. The company refused to repair.or even sell a replacement motor.
The oven still worked for 3 more months, then the timer stopped working. I could use the oven to bake, but I had to reset it every 10 minutes. The death knell was when the display failed. $399.95, gone, gone, gone.
An aside . . . I was one of the first Joule customers, in fact I was on the waiting list. My Joule failed after 3 months, but the ChefSteps crew immediately sent me a replacement. That unit has since been used at least once a week, sometimes for 36-48 hours, and without a glitch.
I was disappointed when ChefSteps sold Joule to Breville. If my Joule ever fails I have no doubt that I Breville would offer to repair it.
In 1975 I bought a KitchenAid stand mixer. It is still running just fine. In 1976 I bought a Cuisinart Food Processor and it also is still working. Why doesn't Breville make products that last as long?
Regardless of the unfortunate relationship between ChefSteps and Breville, I remain a loyal subscriber, and my cooking skills are all the better for that.
No trials with fat added to the skin. And I have done this with a whole duck and its epic. The fattier the bird the better the skin in my opinion.
Couple questions:
-Was any experimentation done with rubbing butter/oil/fat on the bird before either of the roasting sessions.
-Can this process be replicated for other birds like guinea fowl, goose etc.
Thanks for the awesome work!
Ohh. good idea. In my experience it is very difficult to get a crispy skin on something that has been smoked. but should be tasty.
Should I still poach and dry the chicken out of if I am going to smoke the chicken without the high temp finish? Will I still get the crispy skin and moist center? Thanks!
Hi Jon. As we stated above, if you don't have the time for this method it is best to avoid hacking it in a shorter time. With our extensive trials we found anything less than the 7 days gave us some pretty leathery skin. Now if you just want a perfectly juicy bird and are caring a little less about the glassy crunchy skin just follow the brining and cooking method. Skip the blanching and the drying. You can do a safety truss around the neck to help secure the hanging legs, or try to replicate a stand, a lot like a beer can chicken would be in the oven. Anything to get a good even airflow.
I have a quick question, I don't have the required 7 days to let it air dry. Is there any other means to achieve similar texture of the crackling skin with only a day in advance before firing off? As far as the brine solution goes how big of a chicken do you need to make it work? Also when roasting off how would I prevent the chicken from falling off the bone when hanging? Should I just do a regular truss?
Hi Kyl, so its my second time trying this reciepe and I loved it. However my only questions is should i be poaching the chicken at all? Cause in you recipe you said to poach it, but in the video you didn't. Thank you and looking forward to hear back from you! Also because i dont have a syringe at home, so i decided to keep it simple by brining it for 12 hours in 2 gallons of water with 550 grams of water, do you recommend me changing anything to the brine solution?
this happens to me too!!
Careful everyone! I would recommend putting a piece of string around the chicken as Adam Ragusea recommends in this video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13R0QciGtpg&t=442s I followed the ChefSteps instructions, and towards the end of the roasting time heard a big "PLOP". The bones had pulled right out of the hip joints and the chicken was lying in a heap at the bottom of the oven.See attached pic of what was left at the top of my oven. Good thing I had a roasting tray down there! Tasty otherwise.
Chris Young just posted a video about doing a 3-day air-dried chicken, and he makes the interesting point that when the skin cools during resting it turns into a "glass" that is water-proof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTzUMwbb4KI
Hi Luca! I would personally stick to no more than 3 days out from final roast, I did not personally test this so I'm not quite sure how the skin will turn out, but the chickens meat will be fine. I would also just leave it hanging in the exposed air, no wrapping.. just as you do for the first hang. good luck and please post some pictures of your results!
Hi Dear ChefSteps, couple of questions : 1:- how many days shelf life after been precook at 77C will the chicken have ? and 2:- the best way to store it during this shelf life period ? best way still hang in the walking chiller, or in one tray with holes cover with cling film, or in vacuum ( concern about the skin no more as crispy) ... please let me know what do you think ... to be able to have a good rotation in a restaurant and by having always the chicken ready, and in good shape ... thank you ...
25 grams of salt into 500g of water
kyl, should I put 25 gr of sal or 10 gr of salt for 500 gr of water?
Thanks for the response Kyl. I'll give it another shot and let it rest longer.
Hi Molter, if your breasts are only getting to 140°f during the slow cook there is no way that reducing the time in the boiling step will change the out come. It will all come down to the final roast, and the core temp the chicken got to before that. If your oven takes a bit longer to get that crispy skin I would actually recomend just throwing the bird in the fridge, between the slow low cook and the final rest. You have essentially precooked your chicken and are using the final step simply to reheat, and crisp the skin. so you can get it nice and cold before that last step to help. You just need to let it rest a little longer after the last hot roast to let the heat equilibrate. Hope that helps.
My breast has wound up super overcooked each time I've tried this recipe, regardless of temperature that I cook to on the Thermapen. Even as low as 140 it's been completely blitzed. I'm thinking the boil step at the beginning may be what's doing it. Any harm in reducing it to maybe 2 minutes?
Best recommendation at that temp would be to temp it at an hour, and then every 15 min after that until you are at your correct core temp.
Hello. So I have a chicken drying in the fridge. I usually dry brine spatchcock, cook SV then finish on high heat. I followed the procedure And injected, poached. I just checked my dusty oven with a thermometer and the lowest temp is 115C, I would be looking at about 1:45-2h cooking time ?
