High Heat Vs Low Heat: Which Is Better For Roasting A Whole Chicken?

In her autobiography, "My Life in France," Julia Child called out basic roast chicken as her favorite. "What a deceptively simple dish," she wrote. Truer words couldn't be spoken. A buttery and  juicy roast chicken is easy to prepare but, as evidenced by the thousands of hits on Google for "how to roast a chicken," it's not the easiest to master. There are many tips for roasting a whole chicken that may help ensure the dark meat is fully cooked, how to keep the white meat from drying out, and how to achieve the perfect golden and crispy skin. Some experts advocate for slow-roasting chicken to get fall-off-the-bone meat, while others reccomend blasting the bird at a high temperature for a shorter cooking time. 

Tasting Table asked Chef Bradley Borchardt, Strategic Account Chef for Cargill Protein about his preferred method for roasting a whole chicken. "I use high heat," he told us. "The low heat start is more relevant with larger pieces of protein like turkey." Roasting turkey at a low temperature distributes the heat evenly and keeps the meat juicy. However, to prevent possible food-borne illness, the USDA warns against roasting any poultry at any temperature lower than 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Chef Borchardt recommends roasting a whole chicken on the middle rack at "400 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 to 60 minutes or until the thickest part of the leg reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit, and the breast reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit."

The USDA recommends roasting a chicken until its internal temperature hits 165 degrees Fahrenheit, which you can only accurately gauge with a digital meat thermometer. The problem with this method is that a chicken's white meat will dry out at the recommended temperature, and the dark meat won't be fully cooked. Like Bradley Borchardt, Ina Garten also says it's okay to undercook chicken, since the bird's internal temperature will continue to rise when it's taken out of the oven. To further ensure your roast chicken is at its absolute juiciest, Borchardt told us to "let [it] rest for at least 10 minutes before carving." It's quite important to let all meat rest after cooking it, especially chicken, which will be dry if it's carved too soon.

But even before you pop the chicken into a hot oven, it needs to be well-seasoned by, perhaps, sneaking in some garlic under the chicken's skin, stuffing the chicken with garlic cloves, or wet or dry brining the chicken. It's debatable whether trussing a chicken does anything more than make it look pretty, but you could try to truss the chicken without string. One final tip that Chef Borchardt shared is to "place [the] seasoned chicken on a roasting rack over a foil-lined pan," which will make your clean-up a cinch.