Dry-age for (actually) crisp roast chicken 

I dry brined it while dry aged. Turned out fantastic!

Chris, what do you think of the method of scalding the skin of the chicken before roasting? This causes the skin to contract hard, almost like heat-shrink film, and even after a wet cooking method followed by searing, for some reason, the skin gets crispy. I scald my whole chicken skin by putting the chicken on a cookie cooling rack over the sink and using a pour-over kettle to scald the whole thing, scalding both the breast and back sides. Then I roast them, and the skin comes out crispy. Heston Blumenthal does two scaldings by dipping his chicken into boiling water for 30 seconds followed by quenching the bird in ice water. Chinese restaurants will scald duck and chicken 2-3x with ice water quenches between. Guga, from the channel Sous Vide Everything, did a test of this theory, and found that scalding before sous vide cooking for some reason helps the skin sear up crispy vs. searing without scalding. See this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m4u8mFnPBD0.html I suspect the fat vesicles in the fat cells are rupturing and pre-rendering when you scald the skin, and that the tightening of the proteins in the skin is causing it to squeeze out water, but I don't have the lab nor the know-how to confirm my suspicions. I'd like to hear what you think of this and why it works, and how to optimize this. What if you scald the bird 1-3x with quenching and then dry age it? Does it work better? Or can it work too well?

I've been doing this for a few months after seeing this video and I will never go back. Thank you so much for sharing this. Update: My Predictive Thermometer arrived a few days ago and I'm going to use it for the first time tonight to roast a chicken that has been dry-aging in my fridge for 3 days.

Please more content! Love the sience aspect of it

Colonel Chris 'The Chicken Scientist' Young with another banger

Amazing!

Love using this technique when I roast chicken!

Excellent , more vids plz!!

Bro absolutely amazing content, can’t wait to see and hear more of this. What’s the best way to replicate this process at home?

Ill give this a try

Yeah buddy! Been dry brining turkey this way for a while now thanks to Kenji Lopez. Great technique and video!

this on a turkey gave me the BEST turkey I've ever had. Truly incredible

Hi Chris, thanks so much for this very instructive video. I'm eagerly awaiting your next posts - awesome content, very well explained. Two questions regarding these instructions: 1. Is 260 celcius not too warm? A lot of videos of chefs recommend a slower roast, sometimes at 120 degrees, and perhaps at the end a short warm interval to get a nice colour. 260 seems very high to me, it might burn rather than cook the bird evenly? 2. What's your opinion on oil? Do you oil the skin before roasting? I used to put some oil underneath the skin as well. That worked well for my oven roasted chicken thighs. Not sure if it works for a whole bird. In any case, thanks a lot for this video, and your channel as a whole!!

Very well made brother

Great to see you on camera again! I get nostalgic for the In Search Of Perfection days. It was the show that really got me curious about cooking, even though I had already been to cooking school. May be tough to do right now but getting Heston and Kyle on your channel in the future would be so great! Just to see you guys talk food again for a while. Maybe you can talk here about some techniques you guys developed at the Fat Duck.

Thanks for the video! Chris, you described cooking times for a medium cooked chicken, but showed one well done in the video. Would like clarification please.

Suggest, as Heston made it, infuse concentrate vhicken stock by needle afther finish with dry chicken cooking to 60 degree and crisp skin

Hey Chris, great video as always and I can't wait for your product to come out. I am excited to see whether solves the thermal and connectivity issues that the Meater product faced. Will it be able to handle ~100C internal temps for foods like brisket? Will it work in the faraday cage that my grill creates? I hope you can get it into the hands of America's Test Kitchen who does the best product testing in my opinion.

This is a relief for me to have you affirm what I've been doing for years. But I have an important question: What if you "dry age" first, and THEN brine (and then let it rest for a few days)? That's actually what I've been doing with results which are stunning, but I don't know the science of it. Thanks, Chris!!

Hey Chris! Wondering if separate the skin from the meat with a air compressor in the same way you'd do a peking duck would help achieve skin crispiness as well?

My sympathies for the injured stunt chicken.

I know it could be considered a different dish, but the spatchcokced "heated cast iron pan as a brick" Brick chicken is what I found the most reliable way of producing crisp skin on a roasted bird. I usually dry age it a day but dry brining it. What do you think of the baking powder trick for wings? I tend to think it produces a powdery texture and bicarb flavor that isn't great for undressed chicken.

Do you truss it with the 'chefsteps method'? Also, when would you recommend salting? I never know when to salt when I 'dry age' because I've sometimes found that if I salted post dry aging, the skin went watery again...

Gotta try this! Does the process benefit from using a dry aging bag?

been airing my bird since monday, gonna try this tonight, super excited! does anyone know whether the salt rub applied just before roasting should be done with oil to make it stick? im a bit unsure how the salt will reach the inner mear such as breast?

Hey Chris, As expected, great video! Would you bother with this if cooking sous vide? If so, Would you do it before and/or after? Thanks so much.

Hi Chris! Love your videos! Does this technique still work while stuffing the chicken with lemon and herbs? Or will that create too much steam? What about other vegetables traditionally used for stuffing the chicken?

Traditional recipes/instructions would say rest after covering with foil. Would you rest uncovered to prevent it 'sweating', given a whole chicken isn't going to get cold that quickly?

Hi Chris, just curious how the new thermometer is coming along? Already joined your email list early this year and was hoping your website would have posted updates. Thanks.

Do you know how to make the skin leathery, like you buy from fine supermarkets? Another question: I always wet brine my chicken, and I hope to not stop because my family loves it. Would this technique work after a wet brine? Would the chicken still be juicy after spending all that time in the fridge?

Does this help crisp the skin for smoked chicken, which often comes out leathery or rubbery?

I appreciate this video! I’m wondering, can you combine dry-aging with dry brining? Or would you need to wet brine to accommodate for water-loss during the dry-aging process?

I'm going to have to try this... ... but sadly my oven lies to me and that 500F is only really just under 480!

How would I cook my sides without steaming my chicken?

You mention that the chef "probably should have" rubbed with salt and herbs. When adding herbs to chicken is this a case where you would add under the skin? And would that be done before or after drying?

Hi Chris, I previously aged chicken for deep frying and was blanching them in hot water with 5% vinegar, then shocking in ice water prior to air drying. Do you know what effect this has on the chicken, I learnt this from someone else and am trying to understand the science behind it and if it's really necessary.

Hey Chris, I've got an unrelated food question. When my grandma makes a beef bone broth or chicken soup she'll add the meat raw, put the bones in the oven, and blacken the onions (to make the broth clear she says). Is there any scientific reasoning for when to add raw stuff to a soup and when to give it some color first?

Hey Chris, tried your Instagram and Twitter links. Neither appear to be working.

This worked like a charm. Got the most tasty chicken ever, but my oven was a splattery mess. Is there any way to prevent that? I read elsewhere that you can put some liquid in the roasting pan, but I'm afraid that will reduce the crispiness.

Would brushing it with oil before it goes in the oven ruin the crispiness or would it still be crispy and have a deeper brown color? Or maybe opening the oven and basting it part way through?

That's also why Peking Duck is so crispy

Slow mo first base with that chicken. Like we didnt notice.

Cool

ChefSteps did a variation on this recently where they air dried it for 7 days!

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Pink and juicy chicken=the runs

I ask my self, could i slow cook the chicken to get it up to desired core temp,. then let it cool down, and just roast the skin shortly before serving?!

ok but how do I dry age it?

When is the thermometer dropping?

My chicken is crisp. Also spatchcocked, salted, seasoned, and oiled👍.

Fun ❤ and brush that brown bourbon paint in your turkey 🦃 episode ❤❤❤

A wireless thermometer that's fucking crazy. Does it have a battery in it?

Comment for the algorithm

Thank you for this info. I have tried everything to get a crispy skin on my chicken What kind of voodoo is this???? Just let it dry out in the fridge? It's a cliche but true to say that my life has been a lie. ~running out to buy a chicken~

In Europe specifically France you will find that chicken that has been Dry Aged is not uncommon, here in North America for some reason this is not the case sadly.

Hmmm I never had a problem to make a crisp brown juicy chicken in a EU oven with rotisserie. I used to have a standard Bloomberg household stove/oven 400V/10K watt, 3 phase. Here is USA, I have never seen/used any fast electric stove/oven. There just slooow. Sorry to say, that chicken you cooked, looks white and under-cooked. When you cut the breast, there is not much juice coming out, it almost looks dry. To have the right tools, is the half part of a jobs. Example that new thermometer, that read through the whole piece of meat, I guess you was not happy with, what you could get on the marked, so you have to create new one by yourself. PS: I'm biased toward 240/400 volt electrical appliance and design.

Does your thermometer cater for the 7.7 billion of us who use Celsius or only the 330 million numpties who still cling on to Fahrenheit?

260 °C for 40 minutes? It would burn

The skin might be crusty, but it look hideous, no color at all.

Why don't you just start off saying this is a commercial for your thermometer. Its to expensive for average home cooks. Ive watched several of your eight videos and I'm just seeing commercial.