Hints for Roasting Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Take strips of muslin and dip them in melted lard or rub them with lard.
Wrap the muslin around the chicken's legs to prevent them from browning too quickly.
Remove the muslin strips before the chicken is fully browned to allow for even cooking.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Whole chicken
- The main protein; its skin and fat brown and crisp in the oven.
- Lard
- Fat that conducts heat to the skin, promoting browning and a crisp surface.
The step that matters
Removing the muslin at the right time. The muslin shields the legs, which are dense and slower to cook, from browning too fast. If it stays on until the chicken is fully browned, the legs may stay pale and undercooked relative to the breast. Removing it in time lets the legs brown and cook evenly with the rest of the bird.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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