The Kitchen Tool You Need To Roast Chicken With Maximum Crispiness

Roast chicken is a dish that everyone should have in their recipe repertoire. With a side of roasted vegetables and potatoes of any sort, you have a quintessential comfort meal that is simple yet guaranteed to impress anyone who is presented a plate. It goes without saying that what makes this meal so good is the contrast between the flavorful, crispy chicken skin and the tender meat. To get the former without sacrificing the latter and ending up with dry chicken, it takes a precise technique. Courtney Luna, cookbook author of international bestseller "Carnivore in the Kitchen: A Fresh and Fun Approach to Meat-Based Meals," says that the secret lies in the equipment. "A cast iron pan is great for searing and baking with as well."

Cast iron retains heat exceptionally well, so whether you are searing the chicken or roasting it, the consistently high temperature of the pan creates a nice, crispy crust on any surface that it comes in contact with. In terms of the cooking method, Luna recommends roasting the bird at high heat and leaving it whole "or spatchcocking so you can have more surface area of the skin getting crispy." Spatchcocking involves removing the bird's backbone so that you can flatten it, putting more of the skin in contact with the pan. However, Luna says, "A whole bird can still get crispy skin if properly dried and cooked at a high heat." 425 degrees Fahrenheit is a foolproof oven temperature, but cook time will depend on the size of your chicken.

As Luna mentioned, drying the chicken properly is essential to developing maximum crisp. The best way to do this is to remove your bird from the fridge, let it come to room temperature, remove the packaging, and pat the entire bird dry using paper towels. From there, coating it in fat will help the skin brown nicely. You can use butter or olive oil to coat your roast chicken; it's largely up to personal preference. You can add herbs to the butter or stuff the cavity with aromatics like garlic, rosemary, and lemons to add more flavor to your roast chicken.

For an even further guarantee of perfect browning and crisping, you can use Jacques Pépin's roast chicken flipping technique: He cooks the bird on each side (bottom, top, left, and right), for 20 minutes each at 425 degrees Fahrenheit so that every inch of skin comes in contact with the pan. As always, use an instant-read thermometer to ensure your chicken is thoroughly cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.