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    Home » Recipes » American

    Updated: Nov 9, 2019 by Marc Matsumoto · 18 Comments

    Roast Chicken with Crispy Skin

    How to make an ultra-juicy and flavorful roast chicken with impossibly crisp skin.
    Recipe Pin

    Dry and leathery aren't usually things you want to hear about a roast chicken, but that's exactly how the chicken needs to look in order to get a crisp-skinned roast chicken. Before you write me off as crazy, allow me to explain.

    This summer, I spent a few weeks cooking at a mountain retreat for some of the top names in business and politics. The team I was working with was awesome, and despite an impressive line-up of guests, the first week went off without a hitch. The guest list for the second week was equally impressive, but there was one name that stood out. This is a guy that's been king of the hill in both the private and public sectors, and someone most of you have probably seen in the news at one point or another. Let's just call him Mr. G (not an initial). Mr G's profile included some notes specifying he prefers wine over dessert, and that he likes his bacon burnt and his chicken crispy.

    I pride myself in being able to make a tasty roast chicken, so when I was asked to prepare 7 roast chickens for dinner that night, my first thought was "no problem". But roasting chicken usually involves a choice between crisp skin or moist, flavorful meat and my chicken veers towards the latter. Confidence wavering, I started to think about all the other things that could go wrong: the high altitude... the three different ovens I had to work with... This called for a revised method that would ensure the guests would be served a crispy skinned chicken.

    As I mentally reviewed my chicken process, Mr G strode into the kitchen. Skipping pleasantries such as "hello" or "nice to meet you", he looked me straight in the eye and said "Don't screw up". I can only assume it was meant as a joke, but you know what they say about jokes... Despite the thin mountain air, the pressure was on, and I started to rethink my chicken strategy.

    My secret to moist chicken is to brine it first. This not only seasons the chicken to the core, it also helps the chicken to retain water, keeping the breasts nice and juicy. The problem is that in order to get the skin crisp, you have to drive all the water out of it. It's a catch-22 that I'd always accepted as a necessary tradeoff to keep the breasts moist.

    My first thought was to deep fry the chickens. A bath in hot oil is a foolproof way to ensure you end up with evenly crisped birds, but frying 7 chickens wasn't going to happen on the equipment we had. I also considered using a dry brine or even skipping the brine altogether, but at the end of the day, Mr G was just one person in a group of elite guests and the tradeoffs involved just weren't acceptable. That's when I started thinking about the best crisp-skinned bird I'd ever had: Peking duck.

    Peking duck involves a lengthy process of seasoning, drying, inflating, scalding, seasoning and drying again. Since ducks and chickens are different birds, and I wasn't trying to make peking chicken, most of the steps didn't translate to roasting a chicken. But there was one step that caught my attention, which brings us back to "dry and leathery"

    You see, the secret to the shatteringly crisp skin on peking duck is to dry the skin out until it is dry and leathery. To achieve this with the chicken, I brined it just as I normally would, and then I dried it out in front of the evaporator in a walk-in fridge. While most of us don't have a walk-in with an industrial evaporator, you can get the same effect by placing the chicken on a wire rack and leaving it in the fridge uncovered for a day or two. It's going to look questionable, but under that translucent leathery skin lies some beautifully brined and juicy meat--perfect for a roast that's crisp on the outside and moist on the inside.

    Here's what came out out of the oven:

    A golden brown chicken with shatteringly crisp skin pulled taut by the juicy chicken inside. Like all good things, the moisture in the meat will eventually seep it's way back into the skin making it lose its crispness. That's why I skip the traditional 10-15 minutes resting period and opt to serve this caveman style... Just stick the whole bird on a platter in the middle of the table and arm all your diners with knives which they can use to hack at the chicken. Provided you don't have any guests get into a knife fight over the same shard of skin, you should have a table full of happy diners and a carcass picked clean by the end of the dinner.

    As for Mr G, I heard he took a second pass of the chicken, about as good of an endorsement as I could have hoped for short of him walking into the kitchen and giving me a pat on the back.

    📖 Recipe

    Roast Chicken with Crispy Skin

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    Prep Time 15 minutes mins
    Cook Time 1 hour hr
    Total Time 1 day d 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins
    Yield 3 people

    Units

    Ingredients 

    For brine

    • 1900 grams chicken - whole
    • 120 grams salt (about 6 tablespoons table )
    • 2 large cloves garlic
    • 1 lemon (zest only)
    • 10 sprigs thyme - fresh
    • 40 grams evaporated cane sugar - light brown (about 3 tablespoons)
    • 6 cups water

    For roasting

    • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
    • 1 teaspoon sea salt (such as fleur de sel)
    • ¼ teaspoon black pepper

    Instructions

    • Use a meat tenderizer or some other heavy object to poud the salt, garlic, lemon zest and thyme together. This releases the flavors from the herbs and aromatics.
    • Scrape the salt and herbs into a bag that's large enough to hold the chicken. Add the brown sugar and water and swirl around to dissolve the salt and sugar. I prefer using a plastic bag because you can get away with using a lot less brine, but if you'd rather use a bowl or bucket you'll need to make enough brine to cover the chicken.
    • Prepare the chicken, by tucking the wing tips under the chicken.
    • With the drumsticks facing you, use a sharp knife to cut hole in the flap of skin on the right side of the chicken. Then cut a hole in the flap of skin on the left side of the chicken.
    • Thread your finger through both holes from left to right and then use your finger as a guide to pass the right drumstick back through the hole to the left side.
    • Holding the flap in place, pass the left drumstick through the flap over to the right side. This will require some stretching and contorting but your prepped bird should look like this.
    • Put the chicken in the brine and then squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can. Seal the top shut and put the chicken in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
    • When the chicken is done brining, remove it from the brine, being sure to drain out any brine in the body cavity. Use paper towels to thoroughly dry the skin and remove any errant pieces of herbs or garlic.
    • Place the chicken on a wire rack over a baking sheet and stick it in the fridge uncovered for at least 24 hours, or until the skin goes from opaque to translucent.
    • When you're ready to roast the chicken, put the oven rack in the middle position and preheat to 375 degrees F (190 C).
    • Rub the whole chicken with the oil and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.
    • Put the chicken back on the wire rack it was drying on and roast until an instant read thermometer registers 160 degrees F (71 C) at the thickest part of the thigh. The amount of time this will take depends on the size of your chicken.
    • Turn up the heat to 450 F and continue roasting the chicken another 5-10 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and crisp all over.
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    1. phu says

      November 02, 2014 at 8:43 am

      I never used my oven much, but this really makes me wish I still had one... also, the anecdote is fun, thanks for sharing that. 🙂

      Reply
    2. Marc Matsumoto says

      November 02, 2014 at 9:03 am

      Yea, I didn't use my oven all that much when I lived in the US either. Now my oven is more like the size of a microwave, but thankfully it still fits a chicken:-)

      Reply
    3. phu says

      November 02, 2014 at 12:18 pm

      Ha! Perfect.

      Reply
    4. Duldul Man says

      November 05, 2014 at 6:24 am

      Ha, what a coincidence! Just bought me self an oven. This is so going to be the first to cook with that new oven. Thanks for the knowledge

      Reply
    5. Sergio Piery says

      November 14, 2014 at 7:15 am

      Juicy chicken with ALL of the skin crisp? —Spatchcock and debone, season/spice both sides, a little olive oil in a baking pan, in a 450-500 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes or when internal temp is 180ºF.

      Reply
    6. Tammy Novak Zuleger says

      November 26, 2014 at 5:45 pm

      Does this method also work with a Big Thanksgiving Turkey?? GOBBLE, GOBBLE!!!

      Reply
    7. Marc Matsumoto says

      November 26, 2014 at 5:50 pm

      Hi Tammy, I've never tried it, that said, there's no reason why it shouldn't work. You may need to extend the brining time and of course the roasting time will be longer, but other than that this should work just fine for any bird.

      Reply
    8. Mehak Asad says

      September 24, 2015 at 2:15 pm

      Chef, I made my account here, just to tell u, that mr G's crispy chicken made me think, have u ever tried Pakistan speciality called Sijji (Chicken stuffed with rice) extra crispy and and and.... cant describe. It's heavenly.
      Plz do try it once n tell us what do u think

      Reply
    9. Marc Matsumoto says

      September 27, 2015 at 6:27 am

      Sounds great! I've never been to Pakistan, but if I ever get the chance to go, I'd like to try this!

      Reply
    10. Anila says

      November 30, 2015 at 9:11 am

      Hello Marc - will this work with frozen whole chicken and dried thyme?

      Reply
    11. Marc Matsumoto says

      November 30, 2015 at 1:50 pm

      Hi Anila, it's always going to taste better to use fresh ingredients, but it will still work with frozen chicken and dried thyme.

      Reply
    12. Charlotte Wu says

      January 05, 2016 at 12:34 pm

      Hi Marc, is it safe to put raw meat in the fridge uncovered for a long time?

      Reply
    13. Marc Matsumoto says

      February 02, 2016 at 10:27 am

      Hi Charlotte, I'm no food safety expert, so can't really give you an answer on that. That said, provided the chicken isn't touching other things in the fridge, I don't see why it would be a problem.

      Reply
    14. Kristina Kaschke says

      March 13, 2016 at 5:14 am

      OMG!! This is my go to recipe for roasted chicken now. My husband and my cat can't get enough of it!! Do you think this would work with chicken parts too?? Obviously with the skin still on.

      Reply
    15. Marc Matsumoto says

      March 13, 2016 at 5:44 am

      Hi Kristina, I'm so glad to hear that even your cat enjoyed this:-) Yes, this method will work with chicken parts are well, but you'll need to adjust the cooking times.

      Reply
    16. Liralen Li says

      November 09, 2019 at 11:35 am

      *laughs* I like that it says Cook Time: 1 Minute... but it sounds very good, and I'm going to try it tonight.

      Reply
      • Marc Matsumoto says

        November 09, 2019 at 11:49 am

        Oops! I think something got messed up in one of my moves between different blogging software. It's fixed now😉

        Reply
    17. Dosia says

      November 09, 2019 at 9:41 pm

      Hello Marc, Thank you for all those wonderful recipes! Just keep them coming, please. I love Japanese culture, food and all things Japanese and I wish I could go there one day... I even learn Japanese language (write, speak) so one day when I go there, I'll be able to communicate 🙂 Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

      Reply

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