I made the chicken dish exactly following her instructions, from cutting the chicken, seasoning, overnight resting in the fridge, drying the chicken the following day, preparing the same vegetables, and using convection setting on my oven. The results, FANTASTIC!!
Look, Helen’s videos are all gems, but this one should be flagged as one of the best ever. This is a stellar approach to making a great chicken dish and, while there are many steps, the approach is first rate and the explanations are crystal clear. Super impressive!
The legs are flat and the breast roast is round and bulky. So the heat penetrates the legs faster than the breast even though they need to cook to a higher temperature.
What an eggcellent recipe, no fowling around. I’ll need to chick out the fridge for the ratatouille ingredients and make sure they are not all cooped up.
❤ I just cooked up a large pack of chicken for 2 recipes yesterday making one a roast and the other using meat for a pan dish. Chicken is so versatile that I rarely do any other meat than seafood. 😊
I prefer frog cutting the chicken instead of traditional spatchcocking. The extra exposure of the meat allows for better seasoning and it makes for a perfect evenly cooked chicken.
The cutting technique here is genius. Even as a "cooking for one" guy, I prefer roasting an air-dried chicken to buying a so-called "rotisserie chicken" but a whole chicken is just too much food, I sometimes spatchcock and cut it in half and freeze one, but this technique allows for a dark meat roast this time, and a white meat roast next time. Gonna try that. And hoping Helen's other hints will result in moist chicken breasts.
My husband’s eyes popped out when he heard “my legs are done, my breast is ready to come out”. - It’s a roasted chicken recipe, not what you’re thinking!😂
This was so good, I'm making it again TONIGHT! I forgot to put the grilling glaze on overnight, so I'll do it right before cooking. I'm sure it will be fine. Never again, will I cook chicken breasts to 165°F after educating myself with this info!
Great technique! Chicken drippings flavor veggies with no smoke. Great advisory for properly cooking chicken breast. Everyone overcooks them. 150F is perfect
Dear Helen, I love your videos ❣️❣️❣️I haven’t come across better explanations on the internet. I am a professional cook and everything you do makes sense. I follow Kenji’s work as well and your is a step above. If I ever come to Boston I’ll come to your class to meet you. I send you much love.
Air-dry chicken for 7 days in the fridge to get irreversibly crispy chicken skin (ChefSteps trick, also see Chris Young's video). I call it a "glass chicken" because that is what it looks like
I was down with the idea of spatchcocking before it dawned on me to take it a step further and disassemble the bird altogether. White and dark meat need to be treated as two separate products with different done temperatures. You can also buy extra parts, like extra turkey drumsticks for Thanksgiving.
At 130° for breast, the bones on the wings are definitely “bloody” and getting to 150° with carryover is asking a lot. 140-145° will give you very juicy breast even with carryover.
I only salt under the skin for the breasts. For legs it's not necessary (they are juicy either way) and doing so would risk dislodging the skin too much
