4 Levels of Roast Chicken: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

I'm Jay and I'm a level 1 chef I'm Beth and I'm a level 2 chef I'm Barbara from the Institute of Culinary Education and I've been a professional chef for over 20 years my recipe is easy hard to mess up cost-effective and feeds a lot of people everything you're looking for in a simple recipe the best time to make my chicken recipe is every day no matter what's happening it always looks beautiful and tastes delicious I love roasting chicken because it lets you have the whole chicken and it's not nearly as messy as cooking it stovetop [Music] all right let's season this chicken so first thing we're gonna do is pat dry the chicken thighs so the chicken thigh has a lot more flavor than chicken breasts which I find it'd be really plain it needs to be marinated chicken thighs especially with the bone-in and the skin on you get a lot more flavor from the dark and light meat in order to make the skin delicious and the breast meat really really tasty I like to take some room temperature butter and zest a lemon inside that butter try not to get any of the pith neat thing about room-temperature butter is that everything will mix right in I like using a whole chicken because you never know who likes the light meat who likes the dark meat and it really does roasting the whole chicken on the bone it gives it that much more flavor what I'm gonna do is simply fold back the wings if I leave the wings out like this when I roast it in my hot oven the wing tips will burn then the next thing I'm gonna do is take my fingers and at the end of the breast go underneath between the skin and the meat and separate them what we're gonna do today is pick up the chicken thighs and we're gonna put them here in a plastic ziplock bag the reason I like to put things in a bag instead of a bowl I hate doing dishes this is so much easier now I'm adding my garlic into the oil hefty portion of salt next I'm gonna be adding some oregano to the oil some pepper and finally my favorite red pepper flake okay my butter is ready cutting up the lemon so that I can put it inside the chicken cavity I'm gonna cut this head of garlic right in half that's gonna go inside the cavity as well take a couple of sprigs of thyme place them underneath skin then I'm going to liberally salt this and this is all happening 24 hours before I'm going to roast the chicken just pour it straight into the bag stretch out the skin get a little the legs exposed the more area you can cover with the butter the better squeeze out some of the air fat equals flavor the chicken fat with butter is wonderful generously salt and pepper the bird paprika nice smoky taste and it also brings a lot of really nice color to the bird and it's ready to fit so I'm gonna place this in the refrigerator uncovered for 24 hours now the sheet pan is lined with tin foil again making cleanup easier we're gonna evenly space these chicken pieces so my chickens been in the refrigerator for 24 hours I can see that the salt is dissolved the skin is dried out a little bit it's ready to go in the other my cast iron pan is nice and hot it's been the oven for 20 minutes I'm gonna add just a little bit of oil and in goes the chicken thyme right in the cavity get your garlic I like to squeeze the lemon into using the cast-iron skillet with just a little bit of oil will give us a nice crispy back of the chicken and won't stick and then when I flip it it'll get a nice color on the breast side as well so this is all ready to go in my 475 oven for 30 minutes okay now I'm gonna prepare my veggies I'm gonna cut up all of these veggies throw them in the pan so that they can be a wonderful base for my chicken instead of doing roast vegetables with my chicken I'm doing a variation red salad first things first we're gonna peel and slice an onion I like to use a sweet Vidalia Onion because they're not as overpowering as a red onion I don't like the way the caramelize first thing I have is a loaf of crusty ciabatta this is going to be torn into larger than bite-sized pieces it'll absorb the dressing and the juices from the chicken and pick up all of that delicious flavor knife skills are life skills I'm just putting the onions into the bag now onto the carrots and the potatoes I'm gonna start with my carrot I want to peel the carrot first this is about the size of the piece that I want and this isn't that thick the best part about using store-bought bag of precut baby carrots as the prep goes like this abracadabra these are gonna go in the pan with the chicken with about 20 minutes left of cooking next I'm gonna toast my pine nuts in a dry saute pan these are going to add a little extra crunch and fat to my bread salad so now let's start on the parsnips I like to cut them into about four five inch chunks I try to make everything about the same size it will all cook the same all right I'm gonna put these aside until I'm ready to make the bread salad next I'm gonna slice my scallions I like slicing these on a bias on an angle it's because it makes it look prettier it's a little olive oil and I'm not really looking to cook these all I want to do is wilt them just a little bit small new potatoes these are Yukon Gold potatoes these are just the right size to not have to cut they're roast easily and they brown up nicely flavor is just a little creamier they taste great when they're roasted now I'm gonna mix the salt with the oil and next add a teaspoon of oregano I'm gonna pour the oil into the bag of veggies toss the bag around like this and just like the chicken this is gonna distribute the oil evenly across the vegetables and once again the bag means no dishes to clean last thing I'm gonna make a nice simple vinaigrette I have champagne vinegar and I have olive oil and I'm simply gonna whisk this together this is gonna help moisten the bread salad and again give it that nice sharp tangy nough stump that out right onto the pan now the dishes are done oil and some salt and pepper mix everything around root vegetables really hold up well to roasting they enhance the flavor of the chicken they don't detract from the flavor of the chicken so I'm taking my chicken out of the oven with 20 minutes left to cook and I'm gonna add the bread so a toast with a bread salad and let's put this back in the oven for 20 more minutes pick up the chicken put it right in the middle shake that to distribute them a little evenly we're gonna put these in the oven at 350 degrees after 30 minutes we're gonna flip the pieces of chicken and give the veggies just a little bit of a stir off to the oven 375 degrees for one hour my chicken in the toasted bread are out of the oven I'm gonna let it rest for 10 minutes to reabsorb some of the juices first thing I want to do is get the chicken out of the pan onto the board so that it can rest for a while if you cut it too early all the juices will be on this board rather than in the meat everything is fully cooked we flip the chicken about halfway through and now we're ready to serve I'm gonna put my vegetables onto this platter some of them have a few dark edges which are just delicious chickens rested ready to be carved bread salads ready to be made I'm going to take my bread and all those delicious juices from the pan make sure those go into the salad don't throw any flavor away it's beautifully browned because of the paprika now I'm gonna cut it up put it right on the plate on top of the veggies I'm gonna put the vegetables out first get a nice base for the chicken to lay on this looks good separate the legs and the thighs cut those each apart put my drumstick down my thigh right next to it now I'm gonna remove the wing turning skin side up so it doesn't steam and get soft then right down the center of the breast just run down the breastbone the breast will come right off and on either side of the backbone I'm gonna break the breast into a few sections and I'm leaving it on the bone because that has all the flavor and now we're gonna plate the chicken the skin on this chicken is nice and crispy like that I have my toasted bread with all the chicken juices I'm gonna add in my scallions my pine nuts I've got some beautiful peppery baby arugula which is gonna add another dimension to our salad and I've got our vinaigrette a touch of salt touch with pepper give this a really good toss so that dressing gets all over the bread now the other breast you can see inside all this stuff is still there this garlic is delicious take this out and spread it on to bread now we're ready to plate bread salad on the platter I'm gonna place the chicken artfully around and on top of bread salad I have a little bit of baby watercress that I can just garnish with and there we go and here's my roast chicken and this is my roast chicken and root vegetables and this is my roast chicken with bread salad all right roast chicken let's give this a try really good yeah nice crispy skin on the outside mmm tender on the inside that's really good my chicken turned out great it's crispy on the outside tender on the inside and the bread salad is a perfect complement with it this is a great recipe when you've got a whole lot of things going on and you don't have a whole lot of time to cook and it's a great recipe if you hate doing dishes everybody needs a roasted chicken in their repertoire and this recipe will come out perfect every single time there are many different ways to roast your chicken no matter which way you cut it Jay roasted chicken thighs which are comprised of dark meat dark meat is higher in fat slightly lower in protein and higher in connective tissue compared to white meat it also has slightly more iron-containing myoglobin which contributes to its dark coloring jay places chicken in a bag with oil and seasonings for a short amount of time this didn't allow the seasonings to penetrate the chicken much the roasted is chicken on a sheet tray which helped to evaporate moisture and encouraged meillard browning the sheet tray also aided in crisping the skin because it allowed the radiant heat from the oven and convection currents of hot air to contact a larger surface area and we're ready for the oven while roasting excess water is vaporized out so drying the chicken prevents steaming and promotes that good crispy skin definitely have to get that crunchy skin by loosening the skin and adding seasonings like lemon zest and butter directly to the chicken breast bets allowed for a deeper penetration of flavor the butter also added fat to retain moisture fat equals flavor this is important because white meat from the breasts cooks quicker than the dark meat of the legs and thighs so it helps keep the breasts moist as everything else finishes roasting the chicken fat with butter is wonderful Beth put garlic lemon and thyme into the cavity of the chicken which will fill the room with a really nice aroma but it won't add much in terms of taste the volatile molecules found in these ingredients have to come in contact with meat in order to enhance its flavor when you have them in the cavity of the chicken the flavor compounds are less intense because they're touching more of the bone instead of the meat chicken flavor was also added to Beth's vegetables since she roasted her meat directly on top of them put it right in the middle however veggies generates steam when heated which can interfere with the crispness of the chicken skin barb seasoned her whole chicken under the skin and then let it rest for a day this allowed the seasonings to deeply permeate the chicken and helped crisp the skin by drying it out she roasted her chicken and cast-iron which gets extremely hot and maintains that high temperature evenly while in the oven by roasting her chicken at 475 degrees barb encouraged fast mayor browning vaporization of water and a shorter cooking time including aromatic vegetables like onions and carrots with your chicken adds color and sweetness especially when they're roasted Jay again made good use of a ziploc bag here as it quick a neat way to coat his vegetables and seasoned oil the dishes are done the oil is important for flavor and texture but also because it transfers heat much better than air so it cooked his vegetables at a higher temperature Jay roasted new potatoes which are higher and moister than larger potatoes that you might normally bake cool this makes them very tender when roasted Beth went war for uniformity in size with her potatoes parsnips and carrots baking vegetables that are the same size for the same amount of time and at the same temperature allows for even roasting potato is good making croutons from the roasted chicken fat and the flavoring like barb did is a nice change from simply roasting vegetables chicken fat is generally high in both saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids when hot fats come in contact with foods like barbs croutons dehydration occurs and a crust forms while allowing conduction to continue to cook the interior this allowed her croutons to get wonderfully crispy on the outside she also made a warm salad highlighted by acidic notes from the vinegar pan drippings from the chicken and fresh peppery greens resting chicken after roasting does several things there is some carryover cooking when the bird comes out of the oven so its internal temperature continues to increase for a brief time eventually it cools down and it's water holding capacity is increased this results in juicier meat and the chickens flesh becomes more firm making it much easier to slice when people say resting chicken seals in the juices it's not quite correct but it may seem that way because of increased water holding capacity both Beth and Barb carves their chicken after it rested they cut it traditionally into 8 sections following the naturally distinct parts of the chicken keeping the white and dark meat separate and serving them in whole pieces the next time you're cooking chicken hopefully these tips will help you get the most out of your roast thank you thank you

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 2,284,944

Rating: 4.9080205 out of 5

Keywords: chicken, chicken recipe, roast chicken recipe, 4 levels, 4 levels epicurious, recipes, amateur chef, expert chef, roasted chicken, roast chicken, roast chicken dinner, expert roast chicken, roast chicken at home, prepare roast chicken, best roast chicken, perfect roast chicken, roast chicken tips, roast a chicken, make roast chicken, cook whole chicken, cook entire chicken, cook roast chicken, cooking chicken, roasting chicken, make chicken, chicken roast, epicurious

Id: 6GjcdeNKLyU

Length: 14min 18sec (858 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 04 2019