How do I roast a chicken?

Roast chicken goes wrong in two predictable ways: dry breast and flabby skin. Both come from the same source — moisture. Drying the skin gives you crackling instead of rubber, and cooking to temperature rather than time stops the breast overshooting while you wait for the legs.

Safety

What you'll need

• Whole chicken
• Roasting tin
• Salt
• Meat thermometer
• Kitchen paper
• Trivet of vegetables or a rack (optional)

Step by step

1. Take the chicken out of the fridge 30–60 minutes before cooking.It cooks more evenly from closer to room temperature. Don't leave it out longer than an hour.
2. Pat the skin completely dry with kitchen paper.This is the crisp-skin step. Wet skin steams; dry skin renders and crisps.
3. Salt the skin generously all over.Salt draws out surface moisture, which then evaporates — it dries the skin further and seasons the meat.
4. Sit it on a rack or a bed of roughly chopped vegetables.Airflow underneath stops the base sitting in liquid and going soggy, and the vegetables make the gravy.
5. Roast at 200°C for 20 minutes per 500g, plus 20 minutes.A 1.5kg chicken is roughly 80 minutes. Treat it as an estimate — the thermometer is what decides.
6. Check the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh, not touching bone.74°C. Juices running clear is a much less reliable test than a thermometer.
7. Rest for 15–20 minutes, loosely covered with foil.The juices redistribute. Carving straight from the oven loses them onto the board.
8. Make gravy from the tin while it rests.Skim most of the fat, add a little flour, then stock, scraping the base. The browned residue is the flavour.

Tips

• Spatchcocking — removing the backbone and flattening the bird — cooks a chicken in around 45 minutes and gives far more even results between breast and leg.
• Butter or oil under the skin over the breast keeps it moist without stopping the skin crisping.
• Don't stuff the cavity tightly. It slows heat reaching the centre and can leave the stuffing undercooked while the bird is done.
• Keep the carcass for stock. It's the single best thing to make stock from and it's already paid for.

Common mistakes

• Not drying the skin — Wet skin steams rather than crisps. It's the difference between crackling and rubber.
• Cooking to time rather than temperature — Ovens and birds vary. A thermometer is the only reliable measure and it's inexpensive.
• Skipping the rest — The juices run out onto the board instead of staying in the meat.
• Washing the chicken — It splashes bacteria around the kitchen. Cooking kills them; washing spreads them.

Questions people ask