Roasted "fried" whole chicken

 

This is the kind of roasted poultry that I'd been striving for. And this happened by accident.

So, there's a bit of a long emotional story behind Thanksgiving this year that resulted in me staying home and having to whip up something fast. This resulted in my roasting of a chicken that came out pretty phenomenal. I'd given up trying to get crispy skin on my poultry when I tried baking powder one year. Experimenting on getting crispy skin with whole birds is time consuming and that just a lot of bird for a family to eat. 

Anyway. Here goes. 

I dry brined this chicken. I salted on top of the skin and under the skin BUT, I only rubbed salt on the breast under the skin as I assumed that the thighs and legs would be fine with the heat. As a result, I ended up separating the skin from on top of the breast to rub the salt on the meat underneath. Dry brine went on for two days in the fridge in a tupperware and then on Thanksgiving day I belatedly decided that salting the legs and thighs would be a good idea, so I rubbed salt underneath the skin of the legs and thighs as well. Bird was already spatchcocked. Pat with paper towels before going in the oven. 

Next, bird goes into the oven at 425 F for about 25 minutes. I had placed mine in my carbon steel pan and I placed it on a wok steamer rack so it wouldn't be in direct contact with the pan. While that's cooking, I prepped the vegetables with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Once I take out the bird, I lift it up, dump the vegetables underneath, remove the steaming rack, and place the bird and vegetables back in the oven for another 35 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is to temp (165 F)

Results: The skin on top of the breast was crunchy, bubbly hard and tasted like pork rinds. That was INSANE! The skin over the thighs was only initially crispy, but it didn't maintain crisp as well as the skin on the breast. I'm thinking that the skin being separated AND salted for 2 days made the difference there. I'm feeling like...next year I need to take the turkey duty back from my cousin. :)