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

channels for the rendering fat to escape your bird The most effective means of doing this is to butterfly 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 around the meat If you are going to keep your bird whole, you should at the very least separate the skin on the breast from the meat to allow room for fat to drip out (see here) 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 with chicken or turkey that’s still flabby and pale in its undercarriage The only time I use a roasting pan instead of a baking sheet is for extremely large roasts, like a big turkey or a standing rib roast If it fits on the baking sheet, I’m using the baking sheet If you want the skin of your roast chicken to stay crisp longer, remove it from the bird right after you take it out of the oven and serve it separately This will prevent steam from the meat from softening it again SEPARATING THE SKIN FOR CRISPER SKIN 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 to do it Step 1: Season the Exterior Season the exterior of the bird well with salt and pepper  ... 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... you to season the bird underneath the skin Here’s how to do it Step 1: Season the Exterior Season the exterior of the bird well with salt and pepper