The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 715

channels for the rendering fat to escape your bird.
Themosteffectivemeansofdoingthisistobutterfly
the bird.You end up with all the skin on top of the
meat, exposing it all to the full blast of convective
heat from the oven and leaving plenty of room
underneath for the rendering fat to drip down and
aroundthemeat.Ifyouaregoingtokeepyourbird
whole,youshouldattheveryleastseparatetheskin
onthebreastfromthemeattoallowroomforfatto
dripout(seehere).
To increase airflow and make heating more
efficient, I also advise using a heavy-duty rimmed
baking sheet with a wire rack set on it in stead of a
roasting pan with a V-rack. The high sides of a
roasting pan can interfere with airflow, leaving you
withchickenorturkeythat’sstillflabbyandpalein
itsundercarriage.TheonlytimeIusearoastingpan
instead of a baking sheet is for extremely large
roasts,likeabigturkeyorastandingribroast.Ifit
fitsonthebakingsheet,I’musingthebakingsheet.
Ifyouwanttheskinofyourroastchickentostay
crisplonger,removeitfromthebirdrightafteryou
take it out of the oven and serve it separately.This
will prevent steam from the meat from softening it
again.

SEPARATINGTHESKINFOR
CRISPERSKIN


S

eparating the skin from the meat of a roasting

chicken allows the rendering fat to escape more
easily, resulting in a crisper bird. It also allows you
to season the bird underneath the skin. Here’s how
todoit.

Step1:SeasontheExterior
Season the exterior of the bird well with salt and
pepper.