ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

ChefSteps

A chicken has an irregular shape, with a large crown, tiny wings, and awkward, triangular legs that splay out slightly. It’s not like cooking a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/classic-oven-roasted-standing-rib-roast">prime rib</a>, with its uniform shape and thickness, which makes it relatively easy to cook evenly. Because of that irregular shape—and both the orientation of and the discrepancy in size between the legs and breasts—all of a chicken’s parts tend to cook at different rates.  Even worse, leg meat and breast meat are best cooked to different internal temperatures (about [f 150] for the breast and [f 170] for the legs). Your options are usually well-cooked breast meat and undercooked leg meat or properly cooked legs and overcooked breasts. Add in the fact that browning and crisping require applying high cook temperatures that make it easy to overcook the meat, and roasting a chicken becomes incredibly complex.

The Challenge of Roast Chicken

A good roast chicken means different things to different people. Before we get into the nitty-gritty details, here’s what we look for in a good roast chicken: Golden brown skin.
A good roast chicken should be, at minimum, evenly browned. Ideally, its skin is darkly burnished all over and it looks delectable—an invitation to a feast.  Juicy, tender meat.
The breasts and legs should be cooked to and served at their optimal target temperatures, which are typically [f 150] for the breast and [f 170] for the legs. The flesh should be juicy and tender; no overcooked breasts; no undercooked legs.  Well-seasoned all over.
A good roast chicken should be well-seasoned throughout, and it should have plenty of savory, roasted flavor.  To achieve these results, we dove into testing and did our best to provide definitive answers to six basic questions about roasting chicken:  • Is trussing worth it?
• Is a brine necessary?
• Does applying a surface treatment to the skin improve browning?
• How do you get actually crispy skin?
• What roasting temperature is the best?
• Is resting necessary?  We set up criteria for each test, then scored each method using those criteria on a scale from 1 to 5 chicken emojis (🐔), with 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest. Color: The degree and evenness of browning.
Crisping: How “crisp” the skin is.
Seasoning: How well-seasoned or palatable the meat is.
Texture: The texture of the cooked meat.
Doneness: How close the internal temperatures of the breast and legs were to target doneness temperatures.
Ease of use: A measure of how much effort is required. If you’re looking for a quick answer to any of these questions, we’ve summarized the findings. For a more expanded view of the testing and trials, check out the tips with all of our testing notes.

What Makes a Good Roast Chicken?

Yes. Before you even get to seasoning and roasting a chicken, you’ve got to decide on its shape. The shape can affect cooking rate, browning, and, ultimately, the texture of the meat. Trussing is an easy and effective technique for producing an evenly cooked (and browned) bird that looks incredible. A simple truss will force the legs into a higher orientation relative to the crown, so that they cook faster than the breast, ensuring that the breast and legs will cook more evenly and come up to serving temperature at approximately the same time. For evenly browned skin and tender, juicy meat, we recommend using the “ChefSteps truss,” which extends the legs away from the crown and cinches the skin on the crown taut—this yields a much better-looking bird, but it also encourages a “balloon” effect during roasting, where the skin separates from the flesh underneath, which produces better browning and crisping. The one drawback to trussing is that it increases the cook time. For a quick roast chicken, you can skip the truss and spatchcock it instead. Spatchcocking will cut down on roasting time and facilitate more even cooking, but it won’t produce the prettiest bird. {activity:AXCGrfL0UOjKSQPRdf3RQ}

Use this untraditional technique when you roast chicken to get crispy skin and juicy, evenly cooked meat.

Tips & Tricks: Best Way to Truss a Chicken

Is Trussing Worth It?

We tested four methods: untrussed, spatchcocked, trussed (classic), and “ChefSteps trussed.” We roasted each bird—keeping all other conditions the same—and evaluated them using three criteria: color and crisping; texture and doneness; and efficiency. We then gave each method an overall score. Constants:
[f 425] Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro; rack position 7
Seasoned with 0.5% salt by weight of the chicken just before cooking
Cooked until breast registered [f 140]
Rested until breast registered [f 150]  Untrussed
The simplest shape for roasting involves leaving it alone—the legs are splayed out, resting lower relative to the crown, and the bird is roasted as is. The biggest benefit of this method is its ease—you don&#39;t have to do anything. But what you gain in convenience you lose in performance: The legs and breasts cook very unevenly, so much so that once the breast reached our target temperature of [f 140], the legs were still slightly raw at the bone. In addition, while the browning on top was even, if not particularly burnished, the sides and legs were completely blond and the skin was leathery. Spatchcocked
The tried-and-true and fastest way to roast a chicken involves removing the spine and splaying the chicken flat before roasting. The idea here is that all surfaces of the bird sit on one plane, resulting in more even cooking and browning. (We use the technique in our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/epic-spatchcocked-roast-chicken">Epic Spatchcocked Roast Chicken</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/teriyaki-roasted-chicken">Teriyaki Roast Chicken</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ranch-chicken">Ranch Chicken</a>, and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/pollo-al-carbon">Pollo al Carbon</a>.) Spatchcocking delivered on the even cooking—the breast and leg meat came up to their respective target internal temperatures after resting ([f 150] and [f 165], respectively) at the same time. However, because the bird cooks so fast, by the time the breast hit its target pull temp of [f 140], there wasn&#39;t much color on the skin, and the skin wasn&#39;t that crisp.
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Classic Truss
Trussing involves tying a bird so that the legs (and wings, sometimes) are positioned closer to the body. It’s believed to result in more even cooking, since a trussed chicken has a more uniform shape. The classic truss forces the legs inward and tight against the crown (they also rest just below the crown’s tapered point), forming a tight ball. <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/how-to-truss-a-chicken-the-traditional-way">The traditional method for trussing a bird</a> isn&#39;t hard; it requires a little practice, but even a novice can accomplish it in a matter of minutes, which makes it slightly easier to execute than spatchcocking. The browning here wasn&#39;t as dramatic as the spatchcocked chicken, but the chicken had a uniform reddish hue, and the skin wasn&#39;t crisp; it was leathery. And while bundling the bird up is meant to encourage even cooking, it might have been a little too even: by the time the breasts registered our pull temp of [f 140], the legs were still [f 145]. After resting, the legs were just barely cooked through and edible. {activity:3Dci3ddWs865RfIK7SVjzW}“ChefSteps Truss”
In this variation on a classic truss, the legs are tied to the body but also cinched down and away from the crown. Doing so forces the legs to be on the same plane as the crown and exposes more of both the breast and the legs to facilitate even cooking. Finally, there’s a good deal of string tension around the crown itself, which forces the skin taut. This roast chicken got high marks across the board. It was the most attractively—and evenly—burnished, and the skin was more on its way toward &quot;crispy&quot; than any of the other methods, thanks, we think, to the way the skin is cinched tight to the bird. (It appeared to create a &quot;balloon&quot; effect, where the skin puffed as it cooked, encouraging crisping.) Where this method really shined was in the cook—it was almost perfect. Pulling the chicken when the breast registered [f 140] and the thigh was [f 160] left us with a [f 150] breast and [f 172] legs after resting. The only drawback is that this style of trussing is slightly more difficult than the traditional method.

Epic Spatchcocked Roast Chicken

How to Truss a Chicken the Traditional Way

Pollo al Carbon recipe (grilled, marinated whole chicken)

Pollo al Carbon

Ranch chicken that has been spatchcocked and roasted is an easy dinner hit. Add crisp smashed potatoes and everyone will be happy with dinner.

Ranch Chicken

Teriyaki Roast Chicken

Trussing testing results

No, but it is highly recommended. Use an injection brine or a dry-brine—don’t dunk your bird in a bucket of brine. Chicken should be well-seasoned with salt. Salt not only seasons, it affects texture as well. Salt alters the protein structure of muscles so that they contract less when cooked, which increases water retention and produces juicier meat. Injection brining with a 5% salt solution is the best method for brining. It evenly seasons the meat without sogging out the skin, so you get a well-seasoned and well-browned roast chicken. If buying a syringe for injecting a chicken with saline solution is a bridge too far for you, the next best bet is dry-brining—salting the bird and letting it hang out in the fridge overnight. The drawback of both these methods is that you need to clear out enough space in your fridge for a chicken. Simply salting the bird just before roasting is low-effort, quick, and gets you decent results. We do not recommend submerging a bird in a brine—this method requires a lot of fridge space and time, and the long soak will make browning and crisping the skin very difficult.
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The Ultimate Guide to Brining Turkey

Is a Brine Necessary?

We tested four common methods of seasoning roast chicken: salt and roast, dry brine, immersion brine, and injection brine. We evaluated each method using four criteria: appearance, seasoning, texture, and ease of use. Constants:
[f 425] Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro; rack position 7
“ChefSteps truss”
Cooked until breast registered [f 140]
Rested 10 minutes before carving Salt and Roast 
This chicken was seasoned evenly with 0.5% salt by weight just before roasting.  Surprisingly, this was the most evenly browned bird of the bunch, but as expected, it was the least evenly seasoned—most of the salt sat on the skin’s surface. The fact that the salt didn’t penetrate very far into the meat did however net us a pretty juicy cooked bird with a nice fresh “bite” that none of the brined samples had. It&#39;s also the easiest method—sprinkle salt on the bird, pop it in the oven, and you’re done. Dry Brine
This chicken was seasoned with 0.5% salt by weight and refrigerated, uncovered, for 16 hours before roasting. (We use a dry brine for our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/pan-seared-brick-chicken">Pan-seared Brick Chicken</a>.) The browning was significantly better than the just-salted chicken, although the skin in the center also seemed papery and blown out, and it flaked apart when we carved into the breast. In terms of flavor, this one compared favorably against the bird that was salted just before roasting—it was more evenly and deeply seasoned. But in terms of texture, it was sort of a toss-up: The chicken had a “hammy” texture, and it wasn’t very juicy—in fact it was the least juicy of the bunch with 12% real moisture loss. And the process for dry-brining, while easy, still requires fridge space.
{activity:570UNz9NTb2Yp6ULL5W6t2}Gradient Brine (Immersion) 
We submerged this chicken in a 5% salt solution for 16 hours, drained it, patted it dry, trussed it, and roasted it. This was the worst of the lot. It wasn’t a great looking bird: Most of the skin was pallid and floppy, unappealing to look at and eat. And even though it was well-seasoned, its flavor had a watery, diluted quality. The texture? Spongy. And since it’s a huge pain to fit a brine bucket in the fridge, it was also the least user-friendly.  Gradient Brine (Injection)
We injected this chicken with roughly 500 ml of 5% brine, then let it sit in the fridge for 16 hours before roasting. (We use an injection brine in our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-roast-chicken">Ultimate Roast Chicken</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/butterball-rotisserie-style-chicken">Butterball Chicken</a>, and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/diy-butterball-turkey">Butterball Turkey</a> recipes.) This method took the crown for this trial, as the bird outperformed the others in almost every category. It looked more like a dry-brined bird in terms of browning, and the skin appeared to puff during roasting. The seasoning was at the top of the chart, perfect from edge to edge, without any of the diluted wateriness of the immersion-brined chicken. And the texture was meaty, moist, and juicy, and there was very little moisture loss. The one drawback is you have to be comfortable using a syringe, but once you get a handle on that (it’s really easy!), all you have to do is find space for the bird to chill overnight in the fridge.
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DIY Butterball Turkey

Pan-seared brick chicken recipe (chicken under a brick)

Pan-Seared Brick Chicken

Ultimate Roast Chicken

Rotisserie-style roast chicken seasoned with a Butterball-style brine.

Super-Juicy Butterball Rotisserie-Style Chicken

Brining testing results

The most important information we got from this test was the amount of moisture loss, which we tracked as both “percent moisture loss” and “real percent moisture loss.”  “Percent moisture loss” is calculated like this: [after brine weight - post-roast weight] / [after brine weight]  “Real percent moisture loss” is calculated like this: [initial weight - post-roast weight] / [initial weight]  Why are these numbers useful? If we’re looking at “juiciness,” then moisture loss is a reasonable proxy for tracking a lack of juiciness in a quantifiable way. Here’s another way to ask this: How much water is my chicken losing after it’s roasted, relative to where it started? If we’re going strictly off of these numbers, the chicken that’s been injection-brined should be the juiciest, as it has the smaller percentage of real moisture loss, and an immersion-brined chicken would be a close second.

Tracking moisture loss

Sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) is a common food additive for many meats, including poultry. It’s also one of the key ingredients for Butterball turkeys, and we use it in the injection brines in our recipes for <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/butterball-rotisserie-style-chicken">Super-Juicy Butterball Rotisserie-Style Chicken</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/diy-butterball-turkey">DIY Butterball Turkey</a> to guarantee juicy, tender meat. Phosphates like STPP slightly raise the pH of the meat, which prevents intramuscular proteins from bonding tightly when cooked, trapping more water and keeping the meat juicy. STPP also dissociates actomyosin, relaxing proteins, which improves tenderness. When used in proper amounts, STPP is both safe and effective for use in cooked meats. We did not compare phosphate brines with standard brines in these trials.
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Want “Butterball” juiciness? Use phosphates.

Yes, but don’t go crazy. There are various strategies for coating your bird before roasting to get better browning, better crisping, or better flavor.  Brushing neutral oil over the bird yields a beautifully browned bird with skin that&#39;s far more crispy than birds coated with anything else. The oil facilitates heat distribution, which in turn promotes fat rendering; the more quickly and efficiently fat renders, the faster the skin will crisp up. Since neutral oil has no flavor, nothing distracts from the chicken. Slathering the bird with tempered butter—a method championed by Julia Child—produces good but not great results. The main drawback is that it’s messy and inconvenient to swab a cold chicken with room temperature butter. But if you can handle the mess, you’re rewarded with better browning, thanks to the milk solids in the butter. However, because butter contains water, the skin doesn’t crisp up as much as a chicken brushed with oil. Limit yourself to neutral oil or butter; other surface treatments ended up distracting from the flavor of the roast chicken while negatively affecting the texture of the skin.

Does Applying a Surface Treatment to the Skin Improve Browning? 

We tested five treatments, evaluating them on three criteria—color and crispness; flavor; and ease of use—and gave them an overall score. Constants:
[f 425] Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro; rack position 7
Seasoned with 0.5% salt by weight of the chicken just before roasting
“ChefSteps truss”
Cooked until breast registered [f 140]
Rested 15 minutes before carving  No Coating (Control)
The least browned of all the tests, with definitely-not-crispy skin that tasted like, well, not crispy chicken skin. Easy and ineffective.  Tempered Butter
Julia Child was famous for slathering her chickens in tempered butter—butter at or about room temperature, so it’s easily spreadable and sticks to the surfaces of the chicken—before roasting. The fat and milk solids are thought to aid in browning and crisping. So how does the technique hold up? Pretty well! The browning here was undeniable, thanks to the milk solids in the butter. And the skin was tender, but not really crispy, with a slight sweetness and a little more depth of flavor than the other birds in this test. The main drawback here is that working with tempered butter is a messy business—whether you’re using your hands or a pastry brush, you’re going to be on cleanup duty after.  NOTE: If you choose to coat your bird in butter, work quickly. The chicken will most likely be at refrigerator temperatures, and the butter will firm up when it comes in contact with the cold skin. It doesn’t set up instantly, but working quickly, using broad strokes to spread the tempered butter on, will ensure that all sides are evenly coated. One question we got hung up on a little: Why doesn’t butter work to produce crispy skin? Two things could be at play here: Butter is roughly 16 percent water, and more water means that more energy is required to evaporate moisture from the surface of the skin and begin the crisping process. Second, butter is rich in milk solids, which brown long before the skin has a chance at becoming crisp; if we were to wait for the skin to crisp, the milk solids would likely burn. Neutral Oil
We brushed neutral oil over the surface of the skin and roasted the chicken.  The skin was less browned than the test with tempered butter, but still evenly browned across the surface, and it was the crispest out of all tests, probably because the fat was more rendered—it seems that pure fat with a higher smoke point was able to conduct heat more efficiently.   Since brushing oil on the bird was super simple and yielded skin that was comparable in flavor to the butter test, albeit less rich, this method took the crown in this test.  Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise—a viscous, emulsified mix of egg proteins and fat—should produce results that are similar to tempered butter—a viscous, emulsified mix of milk proteins and fat. In theory, the proteins should facilitate browning and the fat should help with crisping the skin and distributing heat evenly. The theory was sound when it came to color and crisping; like the buttered bird, this one had nice browning across the surface, but the skin was a little wrinkled and floppy, not crispy. But where this technique really let us down was on the flavor side; it tasted aggressively salty and the savory mayo flavor was distracting. Finally? Mayo is messy—maybe not as messy as the butter, but it was also finicky to apply in an even coating.  ChefSteps Chicken “Elixir”
Taking a page from our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/elixir-three-thanksgiving-turkey">Turkey Elixir</a>, we developed a chicken elixir with the same ingredients, substituting the cranberry bitters with Angostura bitters. We brushed this glaze over the chicken in stages as it roasted. While the elixir performed beautifully in terms of browning—this was the most beautiful bird by far—it wasn’t great in other respects. The flavors were distracting—sort of like mulled wine—and while appropriate for the holidays, they’re not what you’re looking for in a roasted chicken. And this isn’t really an easy avenue to pursue, as it requires specialty ingredients, and applying the elixir requires some precision and timing. 
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Here's how you can get a Thanksgiving turkey that looks like it was lifted right off the pages of a classy food magazine.

Showstopper Turkey Elixir: Paint Your Way to A Norman Rockwell-Worthy Thanksgiving

Surface treatments testing

Air-dry the bird for at least three days, preferably a week. It’s the holy grail for a roast chicken: truly crispy, shattery, glassy skin. Can it be done? Yes, but it takes some planning, because the enemy of crispy skin is moisture, and the best way to remove moisture from the skin without applying heat is to air-dry the chicken in the fridge. And the process takes time. We compared seven treatments and found that the only reliable way to produce actually crispy skin was to air-dry the chicken in the refrigerator for at least three days. However, the crisp skin that&#39;s produced after three days of air drying is short-lived—it vanishes as the chicken rests, and water vapor rises and softens the skin. For truly crispy skin, we found air-drying the chicken for one week was required.  One interesting outcome of our testing was that Jacques Pépin’s technique—browning the skin in a pan before roasting the chicken—produced the “roastiest” chicken with the best browning. It takes a little effort, but the results were incredible, even though the skin wasn&#39;t as crispy as a seven-day air-dried bird. 
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How Do You Get Actually Crispy Skin

We evaluated each method for color and crisping and ease of use and then gave them an overall score. Constants:
[f 425] Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro; rack position 7
Seasoned with 0.5% salt by weight of the chicken
“ChefSteps truss”
Cooked until breast registered [f 140]
Rested 10 minutes before carving No Treatment (Control)
As a reference point, we roasted a chicken straight from the fridge—no pre-treatments, no tricks.   Super easy to execute, with very weak results—the skin wasn&#39;t crisp at all. Air-Dried (24 hours)
Air-drying in a refrigerator is a commonly used technique for producing crispy skin. The idea is the cold, dry, forced air in a refrigerator evaporates excess moisture before the bird goes in the oven. But does a relatively short, one-day drying period work? With just a slightly darker color in spots when compared to the bird we did nothing to and a similarly not-crisp skin, and the fact that you had to clear space out in your fridge overnight, this method illustrated an instance where theory and reality meet and don’t align. Though a bird is drier after 24 hours of air-drying, that’s just on the surface: More moisture must evaporate before crisping can occur. Given its similarity to the previous test, and the added time for air drying, a 24-hour air-dry doesn’t seem worth the effort. Air-Dried (3 days)
What if we increased the duration of air-drying? After all, this is the strategy we use in our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-roast-chicken">Ultimate Roast Chicken</a>.  This test produced some of the crispiest skin out of all the tests. It wasn’t perfect, but there were areas, such as the sides of the breasts (where there was a lot of subcutaneous fat) and the areas between the drum and the crown (where the skin is thin and delicate), that had crisp skin with a glassy, shattery quality straight out of the oven. The color on the top and sides was darker and more even, and the legs showed improvement in browning (though they weren’t perfect). In spots—toward the bottom of the crown—the skin resembled <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/the-ultimate-guide-to-making-crispy-amber-hued-peking-duck-at-home">Peking duck</a>. The crispiest areas of this chicken also stayed crisp longer than any other test (up to 5 minutes, at which point most other chickens tended to get soggy skin). These were great results, and all for the price of saving a parking space in your fridge for three days. But they weren&#39;t the best. Blanched and Air-Dried (3 days) 
In the past, we’ve advocated for poaching a whole chicken before air-drying it in the fridge. The idea is that a short poach converts collagen in the skin to gelatin, which facilitates crisping and puffing (much like the process for making pork rinds or <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/fried-tendon-puffs">fried tendon puffs</a>).  The results here were similar to the three-day air-dried bird, but with less browning, and the skin appeared to wrinkle slightly after roasting, which didn’t happen in the non-poached test. The skin was more tender than the non-blanched version, but it took longer to brown. Blanching does not seem worth the extra effort, particularly when the fridge seems to be doing most of the work. Air-Dried (7 Days) 
This was the crispiest chicken we produced and is about as crispy as you can get it without deep-frying or using a commercial Rational combi oven. The skin on a seven-day air-dried bird showed a noticeable improvement over the three-day air-dried bird. The skin puffed during roasting, hardening to a crispy shell that didn’t collapse during the resting period out of the oven. The color was dark brown and golden with more even color on the sides of the bird. If you have the time to plan and space in your refrigerator to stash a chicken for a week, all it takes is some patience to transform the skin into a crispy shell. Skin Separated and Poked
Another popular technique for getting crispy skin involves separating the skin from the meat and poking the skin all over with a skewer. The theory is that separation allows the skin to render and crisp more efficiently, while the holes provide more avenues for the fat to render out, enhancing those crispy qualities. First off, this method is a hassle—sliding your fingers in between the meat and skin is annoying, and poking the skin, while straightforward, is also an annoying extra step. This is particularly true since the browning achieved by this method wasn&#39;t all that even. Where browning occurred, the skin had a lacy, bubbly, slightly crispy quality, but this technique didn’t seem to help develop color in hard-to-reach places. Baking Powder 
Ah, baking powder, the secret weapon for enhancing browning and crispness for all kinds of meats and poultry. We had to know if it lived up to the hype. Baking powder is supposed to play two roles: It helps to desiccate the skin by drawing out moisture and raises the pH of the skin, which accelerates browning. For this test, we dusted the surface with a mixture of kosher salt and baking powder (in a 3:1 ratio by volume, or 8 g kosher salt to 3.5 g baking powder). Unfortunately, the skin was not nearly as crispy or well-browned as in other tests. And while the baking powder appeared to enhance browning at the crown, there were patches of dried baking powder that stuck to portions of the skin, even after roasting. Worst of all, the chicken had a slightly bitter, soapy aftertaste. While there may be merits to using baking powder in other applications, it didn’t seem to deliver the goods when it comes to crispy skin. And we just couldn’t get past that caked layer of baking powder on the skin. Pre-Seared 
Jacques Pépin, one of the luminaries of French cuisine in the U.S., along with his dear friend Julia Child, is famous for roasting his chickens in a skillet. He sears all sides of the chicken—back, legs, drums, and crown—before roasting the chicken in a hot oven. Jumpstarting the crisping process is a logical move. So does it work? Where this method falls is in ease of use: It’s difficult to brown a whole chicken well in a pan! However, if you can do it without messing up the skin, you’ll get a very well-browned bird with crispy (but not glassy) skin. And, to crown it all, this chicken had the deepest roasted flavor of them all.

Crispy skin testing

No, we’re not knocking the unique pleasures of a crisp piece of poultry skin. (Even though we appreciate its polar opposite: the “bite” of poached skin in <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/hainanese-chicken-rice">Hainanese chicken rice</a>.) We’re saying that “crispy” isn’t the best adjective for the skin of most roasted birds. “Crispy” applies to Peking duck skin, and to the skin on our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-roast-chicken">Ultimate Roast Chicken</a>, because they’re prepared using methods that guarantee crispiness: air-drying, complete and efficient rendering of subcutaneous fat, and preventing steam from messing with the crispiness after the cook. Most roast chicken methods don’t have a chance at producing crispy skin, because even if they come out of the oven with crispy skin, as the birds rest and dump out steam, the skin softens. That doesn’t mean the roast chicken is “bad”; it’s just a fact! So while we evaluated the “crispiness” of the skin in all these preparations, we did so with the understanding that we aren’t talking about the cracker-like crispness of Peking duck or our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-roast-chicken">Ultimate Roast Chicken</a>. 
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Imagine the best Peking Duck you’ve ever had. That crispy, amber-toned skin. That juicy, melt-in-your-mouth breast meat. Now imagine you made that duck at home.

Ultimate Peking Duck

Crispy skin is debatable? Huh?

Start low and end high. In previous tests, we kept the roasting temperature consistent: [f 425], no convection, no frills. But the reality is you’ve got many options and strategies for combining oven temperatures and roasting procedures.  We found that a two-stage roasting process yields the best results. Starting with a slow, low-temp roast and finishing with a blast of high heat gets you consistently moist and tender meat with beautifully browned, crisp skin. The one drawback to this method is that it takes time—the initial low roast can extend well past the total cooking time of birds roasted in a super-hot oven. The next best method, which is also more streamlined, was to use a very hot oven combined with forced convection, although this method works best if the convection oven has a “super convection” setting.  
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What Is Roasting?

What Roasting Temperature Is the Best?

We tested five different methods and evaluated them on three criteria: color and crisping; texture and doneness; and ease of use. Then we gave each one an overall score. Constants:
Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro; rack position 7
Seasoned with 0.5% salt by weight of the chicken just before cooking
Where appropriate, the chicken was cooked until breast registered [f 140]
Rested 10 minutes before carving Low-Temperature Cook, High-Temperature Finish
This is the method we use for our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-roast-chicken">Ultimate Roast Chicken</a> recipe. We start the chicken in a [f 225] oven to bring the breast to [f 150], let the chicken rest until the internal temperature comes down to [f 100], then blast it at [f 475] with the convection on to crisp the skin. This technique gave us great results—consistent edge-to-edge cook, moist and tender throughout, even browning with hints of crispy skin. The main drawback? Those great results take a lot of time ... about 5 hours. [f 375] Oven 
We wanted to see what a “middle-of-the-road” roasting temperature would produce.  And what we got was a pallid, unappetizing, wrinkled bird with leathery skin. However, it was pretty easy, with very little risk of overshooting the target pull temperature. [f 450] Oven 
What if we raised the oven temperature significantly? Well, the bird browns better everywhere, especially at the legs, and the skin crisps a little. But just blasting the bird with heat leads to some overcooking, even when pulled at the right temperature (after resting, the breast rose to [f 164]). The main difference between this and a [f 375] oven is there&#39;s less margin for error in hitting target temperatures. [f 425] Oven With Super Convection 
In theory, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/types-of-heat">forced convection</a> supplies more even heat distribution as air circulates constantly in the oven; it also means that food cooks faster. And in this case, theory was correct: The level of browning and crisping was comparable to the [f 450] oven test. But along the sides, the browning was more pronounced. The meat was juicy, tender, and showed few subjective signs of overcooking, like squeakiness between the teeth. The breasts and legs reached their target internal temperatures at almost the exact same time ([f 140] for the breasts, and [f 165] for the legs). The main drawback to this method is that it requires an oven with “super convection” or an “air fry” mode, so the barrier to entry is potentially high. And like the [f 450] method, the margin for error for proper doneness is small. Joule Oven “Rotisserie” Setting 
Finally, we were curious about our Joule Oven “Rotisserie” setting. In this &quot;Autopilot&quot; setting, the oven alternates between short blasts of high heat with convection on and low heat with the broiler element on, mimicking the effect of a spinning rotisserie oven. The browning was the best of all the tests; it seems that the constant cycling of the top heating elements did its job. The color on the top of the crown and legs was very nice, but the oven traps a lot of steam, so the skin never really gets crispy. Unfortunately, the breast was overcooked by the end of roasting. After resting, the breast registered a whopping [f 179]. That wouldn&#39;t matter as much if this method was quick, but it&#39;s not—our bird took 3 hours 45 minutes to cook. If this bird cooked in less time, we might give it a better score, but most people ain’t got time for that after a long day of work.

Oven temperature testing

Yes, a rested chicken is more evenly cooked and juicier. You’ve done all this work to carefully, artfully roast a chicken. Should you carve into it straight away or let it rest? Most folks advocate resting meat to retain juices, but there are still others who argue that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYA8H8KaLNg">it doesn’t matter</a>. So who’s right? And how does any of this guidance apply to whole roasted chickens? We set up side-by-side tests to track any observable effects of resting, and the answer is yes, you should rest roasted chicken. Overall, our results illustrate the importance of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/carryover-cooking-why-you-should-let-meat-rest">carryover cooking</a> during resting in a whole roasted chicken. During the resting period, the internal temperatures of the breasts and legs rise dramatically—up to a 10-degree Fahrenheit rise in internal temperature in a 20-minute window. So, at minimum, resting is important to get the chicken to proper serving temperatures and doneness. However, they also showed that resting—in the specific case of whole roasted chickens—increases the juiciness of the meat. 
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Carryover Cooking: Why You Should Let Meat Rest

Is Resting Necessary?  

Many people argue that resting is essential for meat to “retain” juices. But some cooks argue that it doesn’t make a difference: <a href="https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/science-of-resting-meat/">Meathead Goldwyn</a> has been saying it for years, and more recently, ChefSteps co-founder <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYA8H8KaLNg">Chris Young</a> has shown that resting doesn’t keep meat juicy. We were curious if these well-documented claims held up for a whole roast chicken. We tracked moisture loss after carving four different birds rested at different time intervals. We recorded the weight of each roasted chicken, carved it fully (leaving behind all juices on the cutting board), then recorded the weight of the carved bird (including the carcass). We then calculated the percent “juice” lost through carving to see if resting produced any observable effect. Rested chicken shows less moisture loss than unrested. Overall, a 20-minute-rested chicken shows less moisture loss relative to a 1-minute-rested chicken. At the extreme end, we saw the 350-degree chicken retain more than twice as much juice when rested for 20 minutes.  Are these numbers conclusive? We’d be hard-pressed to say yes. These results run at odds with the notion that “resting doesn’t retain juices.” We should point out that much of the “anti-resting” supporting evidence centers around results obtained by resting uniform cuts of steak—not whole roasts. So, maybe resting does help retain juices for whole roasted chickens. For better or for worse, we’d need to repeat these trials a few more times to get a more robust data set.

Resting testing

One of the most important parts of roasting a chicken is pulling it from the oven at the proper temperature. This is why we had clear target internal temperatures for each of our tests. Unfortunately, “temping” a chicken can be one of the most baffling procedures.  There are two ways to gauge the internal temperature of a chicken. You either want to know where the temperature is right now, or where it’s going to end up. In both cases, the best place to insert the temperature probe is in the breast, but you have to place the probe in different locations to get the most accurate results.  For low-temperature cooks, you want to know what the temperature is right now. By probing the deepest, “coldest” part of the breast—near the bone—it’s safe to assume that the rest of the bird is at least at this temperature or higher.  For high-temperature cooks, which need to rest to account for <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/carryover-cooking-why-you-should-let-meat-rest">carryover cooking</a>, you need a reasonable estimate of what temperature your chicken will reach after that resting period. As a result, you’ll need to position the probe closer to the surface.

How to temp a roast chicken

Well ... it depends. There are many, many ways to roast a great chicken, depending on what you’re looking for. You can combine some (or many) of the techniques we tested to produce an outstanding result. Let’s dig into a few examples. Super Juicy, Evenly Seasoned 
If you want a moist, evenly seasoned bird, then injection or immersion brining are the most effective ways to transform the meat’s texture and keep it juicy. In fact, if you’re looking for an over-the-top example, our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/butterball-rotisserie-style-chicken">Super-Juicy Butterball Rotisserie-Style Chicken</a> recipe combines salt, sugar, and sodium tripolyphosphate to give you a ridiculously juicy, succulent texture. {activity:7d0tenpstSI5cBejTJVObL}Ultra-Crispy Skin
If you want a crispy-skinned bird at all costs, then a combination of extensive air-drying and skillet roasting or high-temperature roasting will go a long way. Our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-roast-chicken">Ultimate Roast Chicken</a> recipe combines a three- to five-day air-drying period and a two-stage (low and slow, then hot and fast) cooking method, which guarantees the glassiest, crispiest skin possible. 
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Fast and Easy 
If you just want chicken, hot and fast, ready to rock on the table in no time, spatchcocking is probably the best approach. Our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/epic-spatchcocked-roast-chicken">Epic Spatchcocked Roast Chicken</a> combines a leveled-up spatchcocking process, a generous brush of oil, a moderate [f 425] roasting temperature, and a sneaky coating of chicken bouillon powder. It’s juicy, evenly cooked, decently browned (but not crispy), and ready in under 45 minutes.  
{activity:2KHdZsjqRX5KQzZGFRm0G3}Zero Effort 
And finally, what if you’re fed up with the song and dance of roasting chickens? What if you’re kinda lazy, utilitarian to a fault, and just want an okay roast chicken with none of the bells and whistles? In that case, play it like this:  • Don’t truss your bird; at most, take out the wishbone.
• Season it with salt and brush it with oil just before roasting. 
• Roast it in a hot [f 425] oven with convection on until the breast registers [f 150].
• Carve it up right out of the oven. That chicken will be decent! You won’t necessarily have crispy skin, but the breast and leg meat will be thoroughly and reasonably evenly cooked (thanks to forced convection).

So What’s the Best Way to Roast a Chicken?  

What do you want out of a roast chicken? Crispy skin? Super juicy and tender meat? Or do you just want a quick (but tasty!) bird you can get on the table in under an hour?  There are tons of techniques out there for roasting chickens. You can spatchcock the bird, you can truss it, or you can just let everything hang loose; you can roast it on a rack, flat on a pan, in a skillet, or propped up on a beer can; you can salt it right before cooking or brine it for days. Depending on your goals, some of these approaches will work out great, and some won’t. Armed with an arsenal of ovens, sheet pans, probe thermometers, and a standing order with our chicken supplier, we decided to assess a range of techniques and methods for achieving roast chicken perfection. We roasted over 150 birds to figure out what actually matters, what doesn’t, and the different levers you can pull to make your platonic ideal of a roast chicken. Editors’ Note: This guide has been updated to incorporate the results of hundreds of additional tests, as well as techniques we have adopted and used in roast chicken recipes since this guide was first published. The format has been restructured to provide at-a-glance insights into the tests we ran, and we’ve included summaries of each trial as tips.

The Ultimate Guide to Roast Chicken