Roasting chicken which side up

I had to test it for myself, using my favorite combination of roast chicken techniques: salted bird, dried in fridge, brought to room temperature, trussed and cooked with plenty of salt in a degree oven. Though it felt wrong, in the name of scientific inquiry I placed it on its bed of potatoes, garlic and onion breast-side down. See this photo of my bird. It is round, with the wing tips pointing up towards you. A breast-side up chicken, on the other hand, sort of looks like a heart , with the tips of the drumsticks visible.

I was curious to see if the breast was noticeably moister, if the rest of the chicken texture was good, and if the flavor was the identical. I also wanted to see if I could live without the crisp chicken breast skin. My verdict? I cannot. Yes, the breast was slightly moister than usual, but its skin was pale as my Irish complexion is on a day in late March. We usually have this with a salad as side and nothing else.

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Servings: four. Ingredients For the chicken: 1 4-lb. Roast the chicken breast side down for 30 minutes. Turn it over by inserting sturdy tongs into the cavity and flipping it. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board, loosely tent it with foil, and let it rest for 15 minutes. Tilt the pan so the juices run to one corner. Use a large soup spoon to skim off and discard as much of the clear fat as possible. Position the pan over a large burner on high heat.

Pour the wine into the pan. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up the browned bits stuck on the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat and simmer. If the liquid does not cover the entire bottom of your pan, tilt the pan to move the liquid around. Take the pan off the heat, add the parsley, and swirl in the cold butter until it melts.

Season to taste with pepper and transfer the sauce to a pitcher or bowl for serving. Recipe Notes Edit Delete. A roasting pan with a rack is nice, particularly one with upright handles, which is easy to move around in the oven.

But a rimmed sheet pan or oven-proof skillet like cast-iron works just as well. They also come in handy if you want to spatchcock the chicken.

If you can, leave at least one hour for the seasoned chicken to rest in the refrigerator, uncovered, before it's time to cook. Longer is even better, up to 24 hours. The result is noticeably crispier skin. An instant-read thermometer isn't the only way to determine whether your chicken is done, but it is the most accurate way. It's worth buying one. But here are some suggestions for where to start.

Try each and then pick your go-to method. Spatchcocking, also known as butterflying, is an extremely simple move that delivers a gorgeously cooked chicken with crisp skin, and it does so quickly — usually in less than 45 minutes.

To spatchcock a chicken, take a pair of kitchen shears or a very sharp knife and cut along one side of the chicken's backbone. Open up the bird so it lies flat. Cut along the other side of the backbone to remove it entirely. Then cook the chicken breast-side up.

But the speediness and great flavor make up for it. A roasted backbone will add more flavor to stock than using a raw backbone. Roast it alongside the chicken, and either serve with the bird delicious to gnaw on , or save for stock. You could also just leave the backbone attached, rather than removing it from the bird altogether. Cut along the backbone on only one side of the bird, then open the chicken and roast as is. Splaying yields a chicken with succulent white meat and perfectly roasted dark meat.

The thighs, usually the slowest part of the bird to cook through, get a head start by being positioned directly on the burning hot pan. And the technique is quicker and easier than spatchcocking. To splay the chicken, use a sharp knife to cut the skin along the thigh on each side, where the legs connect to the body. Then splay the thighs open until you feel the joint pop on each side.

Spread out the thighs out so they can lie flat in a preheated skillet. Some people like the nice, compact shape of a trussed chicken, and argue that it helps keep the white meat moist.

If you want to try it, the classic method is demonstrated in the video above. Or you can get away with just tying the legs together to keep the stuffing mix from falling out. Seasoning the chicken ahead of time is a good idea, so that the flavors penetrate the flesh all the way to the bone. This is true whether you're rubbing the bird with salt, spices and aromatics — a dry brine — or using a more traditional wet brine.

Then add other flavors if you like, stuffing the cavity with aromatics like lemon or herbs or rubbing the skin with fat like oil or butter , or both. Dry brine is a combination of salt and spices or aromatics or both that you use to season a chicken. And like a wet brine, a dry brine will yield a tender, juicy result.

But if you have time, up to 24 hours in the fridge is even better. Add pepper, grated garlic, grated lemon or other citrus zest, herbs and spices to taste. That said, though we generally recommend a dry brine, there are some times when you will want to use a wet brine, which is a basic salt-and-aromatic solution in which you submerge the chicken. For example, you can use flavorful brine to add a specific character to its flesh, as in our feta-brined chicken or a buttermilk-brined bird.

For the crispiest skin, pat the chicken dry with paper towels after brining.