Roast Chicken

Chicken Ingredients:

• Whole chicken
• 3 tbsp Kosher salt
• 1.5 tbsp Baking powder
• Poultry herbs(rosemary, sage, basil, thyme)
• Mayonnaise
• Black pepper

Roast Chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Combine salt and baking powder
3. Chop herbs and mix into mayo w/ black pepper
4. Spatchcock the chicken. Use kitchen shears to cut out the backbone. Flip it over and press on it hard to crack the sternum.
5. Use mini skewer to pierce chicken fat deposits. ~20 per deposit.
6. Transfer to baking sheet with rack on top
7. Optional: Put chicken in fridge for 24 hours to dry-brine
8. Coat chicken with herb mayo
9. Put it oven, breasts facing oven door
10. Check on it every ~30 minutes using probe. More frequent near the end
11. Cook until breastmeat above 150, chicken legs should be ~170
12. Reduce temp if it’s browning too much
13. Rest on cutting board

Notes from cook on 2023/1/31:

• Didn’t really have time for a dry brine. It sat for maybe 10 minutes.
• Used leftover basil aioli mixed with more mayo, sage, thyme, and a bit of rosemary.
• 30 minutes at 450, then 30 minutes 400, then 40 minutes 425. The final temp of the deep breast was 160. Could have pulled it sooner.
• Rested the chicken for a bit. Ate the wings while the bird was resting. Cut off the thigh+leg combo and ate, and let the breasts rest for longer.
• Next time, salt the chicken on one baking sheet, and then move it to a different baking sheet with rack. No foil. I would have liked to save the drippings, but the drippings stuck on foil and lots of extra salt that fell off when applying.
• Consider adding onion powder into herb mayo

Notes from cook on 2023/2/13:

• Dry brined for 2-3 hours, but didn’t pat it dry.
• ~90 minutes at 425. Final temp of the deep breast was 155.
• I made the jus, and it took a lot more touch time than the chicken, and it was just ok. So I removed those steps from the recipe, since I won’t be doing it again.
• Blended the herbs and mayo together. It could have used more herbs this time.

Original Source is from Kenji: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUcZqyGrWYw