How-to Slow Roast a Chicken

Tim Cebula
Updated

Step 1: Spatchcock the Bird

With the chicken bread-side down, use kitchen shears to cut along both sides of the backbone, and remove it. Flip the chicken breast-side up, and then press down on the breasts until bones crack and the bird lays flat.

Step 2: Salt & Air-Chill

Rub salt evenly into the meat under the skin. The salt penetrates deeply into the meat and seasons the chicken over several hours, as with a wet brine. The advantage here: The chicken isn't underwater, so the skin dries as it chills, making it easier to brown and crisp in a pan later.

Step 3: Roast Low & Slow

Roasting at 200°F keeps the meat from seizing up and squeezing our lots of juice, a risk you run with high oven temps. The chicken's temperature rises slowly, so you're less likely to overcook it. And roasting it skin-side up dries the skin even more before the pan-browning.

Step 4: Brown & Crisp

Unlike with whole chickens, it's easy to sear the skin on a spatchcocked bird. Just a few minutes sizzling in a hot pan will yield crunchy, golden skin without overcooking the meat.

View Recipe: Slow-Roasted Chicken

You can ask your supermarket butcher to spatchcock (butterfly) the chicken for you. Pair the bird with fresh citrus and aromatic herbs.