Go to the Article: Help Us Create the Ultimate Roast Chicken
Herbs for me are a must-have. Thyme, rosemary, maybe some sage. Crispy skin, and tender meat (both light and dark.)
I'd gladly sacrifice juicy white meat if it meant a really crispy skin and a glassy shine.
Thoroughly seasoned, not just on the skin. Tender thighs and legs, but moist breast. Every roast chicken recipe (with the exception of a few) is dry... no dryness!
juicy (especially white meat), thoroughly seasoned (injections I guess) and most importantly actually crispy skin. like most roasts have kinda leathery skin, but I'm saying something like panfried chicken crispy skin (or similar to pork crackling) which actually gives a loud sound when chewing. if that's possible on roast, that'd be awesome!
Oktoberfest
Crispy crackling skin and juicy! Maybe even stuffed with rice đź‘€
Crispy skin and flavorful inside and out
Crispy skin with flavor all the way thru, want to taste the flavor deep in the breast meat
The skin definitely has to be crispy (almost peking duck like ideally), i’d like all the fat in the thigh to be nicely rendered out, slightly herbacious notes from fresh woody herbs and garlic, heavy on black pepper and maybe even a touch of butter to give it some richness. But i’d still like it rather neutral so if there is any leftover they will make great chicken sandwich or pot pie
Maybe even a hint of smoke from whisky oak barrel wood chips
Or even try to smoke it with stuffing it using flamed herbs (torch some rosemary and then when it’s smoking, put it in the cavity of the chicken, wrap them tightly in a tray using foil)
I'm with Julia Child: "...get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken."
One of my favorite Julia recipes (with Jerimiah Tower in her Cooking with Master Chef's cookbook) is "Casserole Roasted Chicken with Garlic, Lemon and Watercress Salad." Season chicken with S&P, lemon juice and stuff with lemon halves, rosemary, garlic, and onions. Roast in a covered casserole, then finish uncovered. Drain the hot juices, skim, whisk in some walnut oil, and toss with onions and watercress to slightly wilt. Serve quartered chicken on bed of the watercress salad. (Onions are a modification.)
Simple is often the best.
I’m still dying to try that ancient ChefSteps recipe of the roast chicken when ever I’m able to get ahold of a Rationale hanging oven with enough room ventilation... Because that glassy, crispy skin has got me going crazy, but it would be nice to be able to somehow MacGyver it to a home situation
Thin, crispy skin; moist and flavourful breast meat; tender dark meat. Nobody should be having to make 'either/or' decisions about breast vs dark - the answer should always be 'both, please!' Lemon, garlic, thyme, and rosemary are good flavours, though if they're going to be there they need to penetrate into the meat, not just be on the skin. Stuffing inside the chicken is good too...
all of the above, but crispy skin above all
The recipe for “roast chicken with warm bread salad” from cooks illustrated is the best I’ve ever had. Everything that chicken is is everything I want in chicken.
Crispy skin & juicy thighs are the priority but everything else is important too!
Crispy crackling skin (especially along the thigh joints), fall off the bone dark meat, tender juicy white meat, and for lack of a better way of explaining it a deep “chicken-y” flavor. I like my roast chicken to be a blank canvas, where I can add fresh thyme, butter, lemon, etc at the end after roasting, thereby making it more versatile depending on what I want to serve it with.
Skin should be nice crackling and the meat juicy. Time is not an issue. Additional flavours like herbs or lemons are optional.
Think Costco rotisserie chicken with a crispy skin.
BTW, ChefSteps, pretty sure you are biasing all your results with the suggestions in the header image/copy
Crispy skin, juicy and well-seasoned please! Prefer to see non-spatchcocked. Would also be interested to see some thoughtful discussions on trussing/not trussing too...
Crispy skin, juicy breast and thighs, rosemary and thyme aromas, and a great roast sauce.
A holy triad of crispy skin, moist breast, juicy thigh/drum. Like a perfect balance.
I like it the way Grant told us how to make it
leg meat must be fall of the bone tender
Never gonna happen unless you overcook breast.
1) You're going to have to use CRISPR or another gene editing technology to gin up some sort of lethal infectious agent targeting chickens to bring the world's chicken population down to only one, which sole survivor is in your possession.
2) Roast it.
3) Boom. Enjoy the ultimate roast chicken.
(I suppose you could hedge your bets, save two of the little beasties, and take the opportunity to also have the penultimate roast chicken.)
First of all we have to understand that we have three different parts of chicken that need different type and time of heat. Skin, breasts and Tighs. In my experience i figure out that brining chicken before the roast (putting on a salty bath) is not the wat crispy skin. so i prefer brining the chicken form inside out. You can make a solution and shrink that solusion to %80 to breasts an %20 to tighs because we want more juice on breasts. Important trick is to making sure getting out all the brine juice out before putting your chicken. If you fail to do so that might dry out your breast even faster than the skin. Dont forget water transform heat faster than some metals. after brining inside out my findings that most ppl roast their chicken on a tray. I hang my chicken when i am roasting. the reason for it is even balance of the evoparation. Other reason is that i dip the chicken breast half of the chicken in a ice cold olive oil bath. and start roasting like that. So now the hangin chicken is half in the confit (the breasts. If we cover up then the skin is going to be softer, if we dont the chicken is going to be overcook. as soon as the half way through cooking the tighs and seeing that the cofit oil is heating up i remove the confit bath out of oven and higher the heat to almost max 250 celcius. you should braise the chicken while the confit is in and mixing with the drippings of tighs. The reason i increase the heat is this ; the chicken meat has les density and more fiber than red meat. this is important because in order for you to hold the juice insiide the chicken meat you have to apply high and heat and higher heat and preasure . so its like putting chicken breast to a scorching pot and putting the pot to 300 celcius oven and closing the top. In our case after removing the oil pat from the hanging (breast) part of the chicken we just wait for chicken to brown up on the skin. and check the temp. But it was always done when i just wait for the skin to be golden brown and with a little help of old fashion carry over cooking.
Sinan Budeyri
Chef / Owner Markus Prime Ribs Society / Istanbul
To be completely honest I think the recipe everyone needs is a simple crispy roast chicken (maybe spatchcocked) with herbs and roast potatoes (and maybe some veggies) which we can all proudly serve at a diner table for a family lunch or an "impress the guest" situation
Nando chicken!
You are totally right Gabriele! (i cooked separated breasts to a core temp of 60° celsius). but i hate the leg meat, if i cook the whole bird below 70°C. I like to eat my grilled chicken with my fingers, so tender juicy leg meat is a must have. If making a whole bird, i inject brine directly into the breast meat and put a little butter between meat and skin. In the end I have uber tender meat through out the bird with a breast - though overcooked - that is still plenty juicy.
