Enhancing Basic Roast Chicken

Lesson Goals

While a Basic Roast Chicken is a dish you can cook any night of the week and with very little fuss, there are a few simple ways to enhance this iconic dish to make it even more succulent and memorable.

In this lesson, we will show you how to add even more flavor and moisture to your chicken. We will also show you ways to achieve the ultimate crispy skin and how to use the pan juices to make a delicious sauce to serve with the chicken.

At the end of this cooking school lesson, you will be able to:

• understand how to enhance the flavor and moisture in chicken by brining, adding compound butter and/or other seasonings
• identify ways to make chicken skin nice and crispy
• explain how to properly air-dry and temper chicken
• truss a chicken
• explain how and why you would turn a chicken during roasting
• roast a chicken on a rack and test for doneness
• know how to rest and carve a chicken
• make a pan sauce or gravy from the drippings

Prerequisites

• How to Brine
• How to Roast Chicken