Every Way to Cook a Whole Chicken (24 Methods) | Bon Appétit

Hi

every

one, I'm Stanek's Editor-at-Large at Bon Appetit and these are pretty much all the ways to

cook

a

chicken

. There's a

whole

world of

chicken

out there, folks, we've got big chickens and small chickens, old chickens and young chickens, yellow chickens and even black chickens, but today we're going to work with some good old-fashioned, pasture-raised broiler chicken, oh , Hey, wait. This guy weighs about three and a half to four pounds and is nice and compact, so we'll

cook

as evenly as possible, light meat and dark meat cook very differently, so we'll make sure the entire bird is juicy. and tender is not an easy task, so we will cook it in all the ways we can imagine from the poached chicken we have.

In a pot of room temperature water, we'll season it liberally with kosher salt, lower the chicken and then bring it to a boil, then cover it, lower the heat and let it poach for about 45 minutes. Take this guy out. the pot and poached chicken, as you can see, it doesn't brown at all on the outside of the leg, it comes apart easily, that's how you can tell it's cooked well. the breast feels extremely juicy mmm moist, cooked very gently, good seasoning, super succulent dark meat, lost a little flavor to the water, let's try it hmm, yes, we have a very light and tasty chicken broth, not too strong, let's see if We can strengthen it with a little chicken broth.

Here we have an already poached chicken, as well as the light broth it produced. We will remove all the meat from the bird and set it aside. We'll throw all these leftover bones into the pot. We will add a little celery, carrot and onion. We will cook it over low heat for a few hours so that we can extract all the flavor. possible, okay, it's been about three hours, we're going to strain our broth, then we're going to season it and that's our homemade chicken broth, it smells amazing and that color is beautiful, deep golden with little bits of fat floating on top, Let's try it, ah oh.

Damn, that's good, delicious, clean chicken, it's so comforting. I'd take it over the canned stuff any day. Roasted chicken three ways. Okay, we're going to roast three chickens, but we'll prepare each one slightly differently. Let's dry this. drying it as best we can with paper towels is key to browning the skin and then just seasoning

every

thing with salt. Now we salted this one 24 hours ago and let it rest uncovered on a rack in the refrigerator, which is really drying. environment, this helps remove moisture from the skin more effectively and also allows the salt to have more time to penetrate the meat and in this we are going to dry off season and then dry the skin with the help of this handy and excellent hair dryer.

We will put each one in a 450 degree oven for about an hour and take them out when they are ready. Roasted chicken, so this is the bird that we salt right before we roast it. Beautiful color here a little pale on the other side, but that's just how the cookie crumbles let's crumble it Wow look at all that juice very moist the breast looks very tasty very tasty good salt on the skin but not as much on the inside and the dark meat is so good I love the caramelized flavor of that skin which is the In my opinion, the best part of any roast chicken is tender but with a lot of integrity.

The classics do not disappoint. Salted chicken 24 hours a day. This is the one we salted 24 hours in advance and let dry in the refrigerator. The color is definitely a bit. darker and a little more even and that's because the skin was drier. What a beautiful breast, it looks really perfect. Wow, great skin, super juicy and the seasoning really penetrated the meat. It's much tastier than our other roast chicken and I think the prolonged salting. it helped tenderize the dark park meat a little I love this chicken I can't recommend this method enough hair dryer chicken here is the chicken we tried drying with the hair dryer it might brown a little more than in our salted alum a newt bird but definitely not as much as we saw in our 24 hour salt bird which is getting a great reward here breaking it down it looks very well cooked but nothing to write home about mmm no breasts it's good but it's tasteless.

Shame is our first roast chicken. Same with dark meat. I will say that drying your hair doesn't make any difference, so I wouldn't bother with this roast chicken. We're going to roast another chicken, but this time we'll do it first. That means we're going to take our chicken and remove the backbone, which will allow us to open the bird like a book and expose all of the skin on one side. We'll cut along both sides of the spine and set this aside so it sticks together. Place the bird breast side up and press down as if doing CPR until you feel it crack.

I know that. Season both sides with salt. Place it on a baking sheet and then put it in a 450 degree oven for about 30 to 40 minutes beautiful, the benefits of this method are pretty obvious, beautiful caramelization all over, you got these nice dark bubbly bits and it was cooked in almost half the time, breaking it down nice and easy, super juicy looking white meat mmm God it's so good this seasoning is luxurious because you got it from both sides and everything cooked much faster and evenly and the dark meat and also It's perfect. This is one of my all-time favorite ways to cook brick chicken.

Let's scare our chicken. again season with salt and then place it in this hot cast iron skillet, press down with this spatula to get as much skin contact as possible and then place these two bricks on top to weigh it down and then we'll pop it. Pop it into this 500 degree oven to finish cooking for about 20 minutes, voila, chicken under a brick. The browning is really nice, it actually feels a little crispy which is quite difficult to achieve. I will break it and it will fall apart very easily. It still has tons. of juice mmm really delicious you are very tender very well seasoned and the thigh mmm I love that dark meat, firm, freshly cooked and juicy, tender.

I love cooking Spatchcock chicken. You're changing the geometry of the bird, which goes a long way to getting the difference. Types of meat to cook evenly. That being said, this method is much more difficult to handle than our grilled and roasted chicken and not as much. Okay for the next method. Let's take the things outside. Roasted and pierced chicken. We have our third bird. place this on the grill skin side down and close the lid, give it a quick flip so we can cook the other side and it's ready to get a beautiful color, the entire surface could be heated directly over medium to medium low heat, it will It was done in about 25 minutes so it's a very efficient way to roast a chicken, it's falling apart really well, super moist and that breast looks perfect, we're eating out.

I'm just going to use my hands mmm, incredibly tender and moist sear, and the skin almost crisps and even though the grill is gas, we have a nice smoky char mmm, same with dark meat, whether grilled or roast, you're going to have to work pretty hard to convince me that spatchcocking doesn't produce a superior bird beer can chicken, we've got a beer, we've got a chicken, we're going to put this chicken here and then we're going to put it right on our grill, look at the other one. side, the drunk chicken looks good, this is really impressive, a golden color all over, let's take out the can, ooh, yeah, that's a lot to see anyway, let's break it down.

Wow, the meat almost has a kind of pink ring around it that I normally associate with barbecue mmm yum, the breast browns very well and is just right on the dark meat mmm, perfect, but the only thing it doesn't It doesn't taste like beer, the can is still completely full, but it was great for holding the chicken so the dark meat would get hotter than the breast. It's a little fancy and I don't think it's better than our spatchcock bird, but still. really tasty, now I'm going to go back inside and try something similar heavy skillet chicken, so now we'll use a frying pan to mimic the effect of a beer can chicken, dry our chicken without salt, a little bit of oil now We'll take a little of aluminum foil and we're going to cover the hole in the mold, we're going to place our bird so it's standing upright and then we're going to put it in a 425 degree oven for about an hour, so here we have our B PC, also known as a package. skillet chicken let's get it off this stand wow that's a lot so anyway yeah this looks pretty weird it's brown on top but the bottom half is a little steamed and it looks pretty obscene, cut it into pieces.

I'm not worried the leg with the breast is in trouble hmm yes, overcooked and a little chalky you know this method is confusing because it seems like the part that needs the most protection received the most intense heat the dark meat is totally good but the skin is pale, no. I know this method doesn't have much to offer RAK roast chicken we have our oven hot we're going to put this pan on the bottom rack to catch the fat from the chicken and then we're going to take this generously seasoned chicken and place it directly on this oven rack, okay, Let's try to get this out without dropping it.

Well, so far I'm impressed. The beautiful color here on the top is nicely burnished, but its bottom, which I would expect to turn a lot more brown considering it's fully exposed. It's kind of a disappointment. What's the point of all that mess in the background? It's going to be so pale I'm going to rip that leg off, cut it in half, take off a breast and cut it up. Wow, that breast looks incredible mmm, super succulent, really. I managed it and the dark meat was also very tender. I mean, honestly, this is a really good roast chicken, but the method didn't add much and made a mess.

I don't think I'll bother with this again. Tagg roast chicken, okay, I'm going to season this with salt, I'm not going to bother drying it because it's a wet cooking method anyway, grease it, load our chicken into this oven-safe bag and close it, make a couple of slits to let the steam escape. place it on our baking sheet and then bake it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half, omg that looks crazy, it's definitely in a bag, it looks like some kind of Christmas gift basket from hell, I can tell without even opening it.

It's just a little pale and yet it's open. Wow, a lot of juice accumulated in the bag, it barely has any color, it just steams in there. I mean, it's not tender and the breasts, hmm, not bad, definitely, very well cooked. I really miss him. the complexity of the caramelized skin lens hmm today with the dark meat and the more I eat it, the more it has a strange sticky taste. I don't feel this way when people put salt crusted chicken on it, this is going to get weird, we have people here. a bunch of egg whites, we'll throw all this kosher salt in there and then we'll mix it and knead it for a while with our hands until it forms a kind of paste, it actually feels nice like wet sand, then we make a little bed in this tray, put our chicken right in the middle and form a kind of mound with this salt crust around it, smile evenly, then we put it in a 400 degree oven for about an hour and 10 minutes, well, that's scary, okay , let's really break this crust. it was toughened up there so the chicken doesn't brown at all, it was just steamed inside that layer of salt, but it smells great when you break it down, it feels very tender, the breast feels very supple, look at that mmm, very moist , very tasty and good. - seasoned without being too salty mmm and that dark meat too, you know it's not much to look at, but if you covered the meat with a little sauce and garnished it, it would more than make up for that saggy skin, it's a trick, but delicious, I'm here for it, okay, let's go back outside and make some smoked chicken, okay, smoke them, if you have them, guys, the chicken goes in and the smoked chicken comes out.

Beautiful exterior, almost looks fake, the smell is out of control, the skin is almost a little sticky oh wow that is very tender great low slow vibrations the leg just comes off and the breast looks very juicy mmm wow it almost tastes like sausage the smoke is concentrated on the outside there is enough to perfume every bite hmm, the dark meat is even better, so rich and smoky. I want to make chicken salad with this chicken tied to a string, we'll bring it here to this campfire, hook it to this tripod and let it hang here.

While it's slowly cooking by the fire, okay, this has been cooking for a couple of hours, we've been adjusting the position from time to time, but it seems to be fine, so here we have our chicken hanging, we're getting a little charred here. Cooking over live heat is an art and I'm no artist, but the caramelization everywhere is there. Let's get him out of his bondage gear and then separate him. The breast looks like dry hair. Hmm, yes, why could meat be juicier with a smoky flavor? amazing and the dark meat hmm oh yeah that's good this method is hard to master but super fun if you're up to the challenge fried chicken okay our chicken is prepared we have some 350 degree vegetable oil right here and we're just doing itWe will very gently introduce it into the oil and let it rest for approximately half an hour.

We'll get it out without getting burned. Fried chicken, okay let's take a look at this baby, oh it's too cute to eat, here we go, this is the chicken I met. how nice it is incredibly crispy and brown, definitely looking a little oily, but the color is very uniform because every part was exposed to oil the

whole

time, it broke down, it looks like a lot of moisture got trapped in the chest, it looks attractive , hmm, this. It tastes great and the skin is crispy and delicious, but a hair overcooked for my taste, the dark meat is mmm super, you know, this is great, but it has a lot of dough and it's a little hard to control.

I'd gladly sacrifice some of that browning for a perfectly juicy roasted bird let's go back inside and heat up braised chicken we've got our chicken we've got our Dutch oven let's turn this on to medium heat Let it heat through, season our bird all over, put a little of oil in our pot and then brown it so it's golden brown on both sides, add a little bit of chicken broth, let it rise, cover it and simmer it, not too bad, so we have some color, but the skin is It has become a little slimy with the steam, definitely tender.

The lakes are collapsing. You love to see that the breasts are nice and tidy. Mmm, the white meat is a little finished, but it's still pretty moist. I probably could have gotten her out. a little early because that dark meat is very ground up hmm yeah well I bet the liquid in the pot will make up for any dryness hmm oh yeah a little chicken juice solves a lot of problems delicious roast chicken this part isn't pretty we Let's Season our bird, lubricate it, and then use this torture contraption to fix it as tightly as possible.

Okay, squeeze that in there. Okay, hook it to this spit, spin it around, and come back when it's ready. Wow, that's kind of cool. Okay, first we have to get it out of this thing, yeah, there it goes, so the bird got a little compacted due to gravity, but it has that signature rotisserie tenderness. better than what you get in a grocery store rotisserie chicken that has been under a heat lamp all day, not as juicy as a roast chicken breast, yum, the dark meat is shredded, juicy and delicious, okay, let's revisit the same idea outside the wood grill. chicken, okay, so we have another oiled and salted chicken skewered on this skewer.

We built this fire and placed cinder blocks on each side to help direct the heat toward our chicken while it's in this medieval tanning bed of doom. Now let's spin it. Okay, it looks done to me, okay, let's get it off this skewer. It's a bit golden, but the color is quite uneven, that could have to do with how cold it is outside. It feels quite tender, although hmm, it definitely has a good smoky flavor. I love it, you know? with the rotisserie you have the heat on low and you're constantly taking the heat off and re-exposing the chicken, which does some interesting things, but I don't think this outdoor rotisserie necessarily produces a much more delicious bird than a regular roast. chicken, but let's go back inside and try one more version of this same idea photo suri chicken, so now we're going to try to imitate the effect of a rotisserie by cooking our little bird low and slow in the oven, season with Jenner salt inside and out out. a little oil to help, place it on a baking sheet and cook it in a 300 degree oven for two and a half hours, there it is folks, I mean it looks like a roast chicken on top, but the bottom is pretty pale and Flabby because it couldn't receive direct heat, that dark meat is just falling apart and it's very easy to cut off the bone, the breasts, I can say that the breast is a little more hmm, a little dry, the leg still tastes good.

He's just incredibly cute, really hot, yum. I mean, look, this definitely works and produces a pretty tender bird, but it's also no better than a real rotisserie or a simple rotisserie chicken, in fact, microwave chicken, okay, we'll season all of our chicken with salt. rub it with oil, put it on a plate and slide it in this microwave for about 20 minutes, here it goes, nothing's right, open it up and wow, oh gosh, yeah, that looks like microwaved chicken, y'all. I'm actually a little surprised by how much color we have. I got here, there are definitely some crispy looking bits, the other side not so much, it's definitely cooked and the breast mmm, you know, I must say none of the white meat is juicier than I thought it would be, but strangely a little tough and the dark meat hmm. very tender, quite nice, honestly not the most elegant preparation and leaves a lot to be desired including the skin, but that being said, I'm pretty impressed with the microwave instant pot chicken this time around, so we put our instant pot on the saute function.

We're going to season all of our tied chicken with salt, put a little bit of oil in the pot and we're going to brown the bird on all sides, then we're going to add a little bit of water, close the lid and let it pressure cook, oh wow, it's good yes. of control lost, this one has fallen to pieces once again, we got a little bit of color from the saute function but then it got completely soggy, it's actually just falling apart which is not a bad thing for this dark meat, hmm, Yes, it is incredibly tender. delicious bowl, but yeah, that doesn't look too spicy, hmm, yeah, dry, you know, the instant pot would be great for making a big batch of dark meat shredded chicken, but not a whole bird, here we sacrifice the white meat for the dark one, so the whole package is Not so impressive is the air fried chicken, we meet again against the droid, we are going to tie the legs so they fit, salt, a little oil, open this tray, put our bird in in our preheated fryer and leave it for 40 minutes.

Well, it sounded and looked good. I love the way the skin looks here, a beautiful burnished and golden mahogany color, almost crispy, the underside is quite pale, although the cut of that rope is disappointing, the meat is falling apart very easily when looking at the breasts, the white meat is very dry, but the skin has amazing flavor, the dark meat is much more forgiving, very flexible, you know, the air fryer would be a great way to cook some chicken thighs, but a whole bird, not so much sous vide chicken, scientific time, okay, a little salt, put it in this bag and then suck out all the air. with this vacuum sealer and seal it well, now we're going to put it in this pot equipped with an immersion circulator at 150 degrees.

Okay, now that all the chicken is up to temperature, we're going to take it out of the bag. Dry it off and use this searzall which is a modified blowtorch to give some color to that skin, jeez this is taking forever to get boring okay good enough to give this chicken a great compact shape because of the way it was cooked under pressure and this searzall was able to give us a decent sear and somewhat uneven all over looks like a cheese pizza let's divide it into pieces this meat feels really good Wow look how juicy that piece of brisket meat, yum, that brisket is incredibly moist, the meat is dense and very tender and flavorful, I mean you basically can't overcook me this way, the dark meat, not shredded or brazii, but incredibly tender, I just wish it The searzall wouldn't have been that difficult to work with in this context, a better sear would be nice, but otherwise this is a perfect cooked chicken Okay, today we cook a lot of chicken in a lot of different ways.

What did we learn well? For one thing, it's pretty hard to mess up the dark meat of a whole chicken. It's very tasty and super forgiving, but getting that white meat just right is what really sets our

methods

apart for that purpose, some of our best and simplest

methods

ended up involving high or direct heat and shooting the bird to expose all of its skin. It was a total game changer. You have a favorite way to cook chicken that you didn't know about. You don't see it here today, leave it in the comments.