Read these five essential tips to roasting a perfect chicken:
1. Use high-quality chicken. Starting with the best bird is the first step to tasty results. Organic is best! Read more about chickens here!
2. Start breast side down. Positioning the chicken breast side down allows all the juices to gather in the breast meat during the first half of cooking. When you flip the bird, those juices slowly redistribute but leave plenty of moisture behind to keep that white meat ultra juicy.
3. Use high heat. Heat is roast chicken’s best friend. A 450°F oven browns the skin quickly and keeps it nice and crisp.
4. Don’t overcook. An overcooked chicken is a dry chicken. To prevent overcooking, use an instant-read thermometer as your most reliable indicator of doneness (see the tip below for how to use it). It should read 165° to 170°F.
5. Let it rest. Don’t be tempted to cut into the chicken as soon as it’s out of the oven. Resting for at least 15 minutes on the cutting board allows the juices to redistribute into the meat, making it moist and tender.
Cook’s tip To get the most accurate temperature reading, insert the instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, toward the interior rather than the exterior of the bird. Make sure you don’t touch the bone with the tip of the thermometer, or you’ll get a higher reading.
Here’s the recipe on the Fine Cooking site:
