Dry-age for (actually) crisp roast chicken

[@Berkana]

Chris, what do you think of the method of scalding the skin of the chicken before roasting? This causes the skin to contract hard, almost like heat-shrink film, and even after a wet cooking method followed by searing, for some reason, the skin gets crispy. I scald my whole chicken skin by putting the chicken on a cookie cooling rack over the sink and using a pour-over kettle to scald the whole thing, scalding both the breast and back sides. Then I roast them, and the skin comes out crispy. Heston Blumenthal does two scaldings by dipping his chicken into boiling water for 30 seconds followed by quenching the bird in ice water. Chinese restaurants will scald duck and chicken 2-3x with ice water quenches between. Guga, from the channel Sous Vide Everything, did a test of this theory, and found that scalding before sous vide cooking for some reason helps the skin sear up crispy vs. searing without scalding. See this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2XYaaB8o7V1epI I suspect the fat vesicles in the fat cells are rupturing and pre-rendering when you scald the skin, and that the tightening of the proteins in the skin is causing it to squeeze out water, but I don't have the lab nor the know-how to confirm my suspicions. I'd like to hear what you think of this and why it works, and how to optimize this. What if you scald the bird 1-3x with quenching and then dry age it? Does it work better? Or can it work too well?

[@christopherkarr1872]

I believe that crispy roast duck *is* scalded and 'dry aged' (traditionally in a shop window, if my memory serves).

[@Berkana]

@@christopherkarr1872 This is correct. But the scalding step apparently works even if the skin isn't dried out or even kept dry; in the video I linked, the scalded chicken was cooked sous vide, which is a wet cooking method, and it still crisped up much better during the searing step, as you can see in the video toward the end, where the outcomes are compared.

[@christopherkarr1872]

@@Berkana Oh, absolutely - I have a feeling you're right about it modifying the fat structure and effectively self-basting the skin, while the protein structure changes (hence the contraction) to make a slightly different physical structure which may be more conducive to moisture loss in a dry cooking environment (pan or oven).

[@Berkana]

@@christopherkarr1872 One additional thing I have tried that seems to also help a lot (besides scalding and air drying) is to use a prickly roller to perforate the skin all over, with holes every millimeter or so. (I have a dermal micro-needling roller tool with unusually long needles that I use only on chicken.) This lets the fat render out much better than if the skin were not perforated.

[@christopherkarr1872]

@@Berkana Ah, the crispy pork belly pricking trick. Smart translation of a proven technique to another protein!

[@carolmelancon]

I've been doing this for a few months after seeing this video and I will never go back. Thank you so much for sharing this. Update: My Predictive Thermometer arrived a few days ago and I'm going to use it for the first time tonight to roast a chicken that has been dry-aging in my fridge for 3 days.

[@seanjoyce9593]

I dry brined it while dry aged. Turned out fantastic!

[@jaysonjames4668]

Colonel Chris 'The Chicken Scientist' Young with another banger

[@toin9898]

this on a turkey gave me the BEST turkey I've ever had. Truly incredible

[@DiegoToussaint]

Please more content! Love the sience aspect of it

[@christenzis6237]

This is a relief for me to have you affirm what I've been doing for years. But I have an important question: What if you "dry age" first, and THEN brine (and then let it rest for a few days)? That's actually what I've been doing with results which are stunning, but I don't know the science of it. Thanks, Chris!!

[@jamsmusings]

I may start to fear the quality of the meat at that point. In saying that never have dry aged a chicken!

[@dROUDebateMeCowards]

Probably you significantly increase your risk of explosive diarrhea.

[@Plneapp1e]

This process isn't intended to be a week-long process. Plenty of flavor can be transferred to the chicken when you make a paste with your salt and herbs, cutting out the middleman and dry brining instead.

[@zvonimirleko2131]

Suggest, as Heston made it, infuse concentrate vhicken stock by needle afther finish with dry chicken cooking to 60 degree and crisp skin

[@_CoasterNinja]

Great to see you on camera again! I get nostalgic for the In Search Of Perfection days. It was the show that really got me curious about cooking, even though I had already been to cooking school. May be tough to do right now but getting Heston and Kyle on your channel in the future would be so great! Just to see you guys talk food again for a while. Maybe you can talk here about some techniques you guys developed at the Fat Duck.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

It could happen!

[@_CoasterNinja]

@@ChrisYoungCooks All the best with all your new endeavours dude!

[@jake.mowbray]

Love using this technique when I roast chicken!

[@bubblewhip382]

I know it could be considered a different dish, but the spatchcokced "heated cast iron pan as a brick" Brick chicken is what I found the most reliable way of producing crisp skin on a roasted bird. I usually dry age it a day but dry brining it. What do you think of the baking powder trick for wings? I tend to think it produces a powdery texture and bicarb flavor that isn't great for undressed chicken.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Cast iron stores a lot of heat energy, which lets it boil off a lot of water-more than hot air in the oven will do during roasting. I’m actually playing around with an idea for really crisp chicken with cast iron. As for baking powder, if it leaves a bicarb, I think you might mean baking soda? (Powder should be balanced between alkaline and acid to end up neutral.) Anyway, I’ve played around with baking powder on the skin and gotten some okay results (a bit of puffing) but nothing that I thought was so great that I should use the technique all the time.

[@pekoediaz21]

Yeah buddy! Been dry brining turkey this way for a while now thanks to Kenji Lopez. Great technique and video!

[@liviuioan7557]

Bro absolutely amazing content, can’t wait to see and hear more of this. What’s the best way to replicate this process at home?

[@Trent-tr2nx]

Hey Chris, great video as always and I can't wait for your product to come out. I am excited to see whether solves the thermal and connectivity issues that the Meater product faced. Will it be able to handle ~100C internal temps for foods like brisket? Will it work in the faraday cage that my grill creates? I hope you can get it into the hands of America's Test Kitchen who does the best product testing in my opinion.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Yes, max internal temperature is 105C. We’ve taken a novel approach to connectivity that doesn’t require pairings, which I think will be massively better for connectivity. And because we internally log the data, even if get out of range, as soon as you’re back in range we update the app and timer from the logged data. We’ve also done a lot of RF work to improve the antenna, plus newer BLE tech lets us transmit at much higher power. Inside a grill will always be tough, but with the charge case or timer acting as a repeater, range will be great.

[@nopaynenoparty]

Traditional recipes/instructions would say rest after covering with foil. Would you rest uncovered to prevent it 'sweating', given a whole chicken isn't going to get cold that quickly?

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Definitely don't cover it. The surface will cool slightly, which actually helps the skin harden into that glass. Surprisingly, even after 10 to 15 minutes, the meat is still very hot underneath.

[@jaajames]

Hey Chris! Wondering if separate the skin from the meat with a air compressor in the same way you'd do a peking duck would help achieve skin crispiness as well?

[@notablecarrot2831]

Amazing!

[@lisijlisij9471]

Ill give this a try

[@hjewkes]

You mention that the chef "probably should have" rubbed with salt and herbs. When adding herbs to chicken is this a case where you would add under the skin? And would that be done before or after drying?

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

I would blend the herbs with the salt, and rub the salt generously all over the bird and inside the cavity too. You could rub some under the skin too.

[@ahpadt]

Do you truss it with the 'chefsteps method'? Also, when would you recommend salting? I never know when to salt when I 'dry age' because I've sometimes found that if I salted post dry aging, the skin went watery again...

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

I don't tightly truss it, because I want lots of airflow around all of the skin. I'll tie the legs together and try to stretch the bird out like you see in the video. As for salting, I'm back and forth on this. It makes the flesh a bit juicier and flavorful, but it seems to toughen the skin and make it more difficult to get all of the water out.

[@chewqatman]

My sympathies for the injured stunt chicken.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

It still tasted pretty good!

[@chewqatman]

@@ChrisYoungCooks I am sure it did Chef Chris.

[@ktennyson7108]

Very well made brother

[@asrah55]

Hey Chris, As expected, great video! Would you bother with this if cooking sous vide? If so, Would you do it before and/or after? Thanks so much.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Probably not. Sous vide is going to create a wet environment that will pretty effectively rehydrate the skin. If I wanted a sous vide like result, I'd so the dry-aging step and then use the technique of surface-temperature roasting to cook the chicken at the surface temperature that corresponds to the sous vide temperature I'd use (in my case, 65C for a chicken). And then I'd let it rest before blasting it in a very hot oven to crisp the skin before serving.

[@asrah55]

@@ChrisYoungCooks Yea that's smart, thanks so much. Always trying to up my game and get the turkey skin as perfect as possible around the holidays. Appreciate the response and very much looking forward to more of your A+ content.

[@teebryson2400]

Thanks for the video! Chris, you described cooking times for a medium cooked chicken, but showed one well done in the video. Would like clarification please.

[@jakaisherriff8060]

Excellent , more vids plz!!

[@SaraVaughanfan]

Hi Chris, thanks so much for this very instructive video. I'm eagerly awaiting your next posts - awesome content, very well explained. Two questions regarding these instructions: 1. Is 260 celcius not too warm? A lot of videos of chefs recommend a slower roast, sometimes at 120 degrees, and perhaps at the end a short warm interval to get a nice colour. 260 seems very high to me, it might burn rather than cook the bird evenly? 2. What's your opinion on oil? Do you oil the skin before roasting? I used to put some oil underneath the skin as well. That worked well for my oven roasted chicken thighs. Not sure if it works for a whole bird. In any case, thanks a lot for this video, and your channel as a whole!!

[@stephens4490]

Hi Chris, I previously aged chicken for deep frying and was blanching them in hot water with 5% vinegar, then shocking in ice water prior to air drying. Do you know what effect this has on the chicken, I learnt this from someone else and am trying to understand the science behind it and if it's really necessary.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

I’ve done something similar (originally for the Pekin Duck episode of BBC’s In Search of Perfection) and the basic idea is that: (1) Blanching in slightly acidic water helps to convert some of the skin’s collagen into gelatin. (2) Air-drying turns the partly gelatinized skin into a low-water content rubber material (technical definition of a rubber). (3) High heat final step will turn the rubbery dehydrated skin into a brittle glass, creating the crispy skin. It definitely works, but I’m not sure it’s significantly better than just a long dry aging. It’s definitely a lot more work.

[@markandrews1219]

Hi Chris, just curious how the new thermometer is coming along? Already joined your email list early this year and was hoping your website would have posted updates. Thanks.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

We’ve been updating customers via email, but we haven’t been publishing them. Mostly this is just a time/resources thing. The TL;DR is that it’s behind schedule because redesigning the seal to be able to go from a ripping hot grill to submerged in an ice bath without leaking took a lot more time than we anticipated. So, best estimate right now is beta testing in August and shipping to pre-order customers in September. Team is working flat out to hit these goals.

[@luxemkingII]

Hi Chris! Love your videos! Does this technique still work while stuffing the chicken with lemon and herbs? Or will that create too much steam? What about other vegetables traditionally used for stuffing the chicken?

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

In my tests, lemons or really any vegetables added to the cavity of the bird, or placed underneath the bird, make the skin less crispy. My recommendation is roast the veg separately, and limit any stuffing to herbs. For lemon, you can just use the zest.

[@luxemkingII]

@@ChrisYoungCooks thanks a lot! I'll try it with zest and herbs then

[@GregSzarama]

Do you know how to make the skin leathery, like you buy from fine supermarkets? Another question: I always wet brine my chicken, and I hope to not stop because my family loves it. Would this technique work after a wet brine? Would the chicken still be juicy after spending all that time in the fridge?

[@TheMcFish]

Hey Chris, I've got an unrelated food question. When my grandma makes a beef bone broth or chicken soup she'll add the meat raw, put the bones in the oven, and blacken the onions (to make the broth clear she says). Is there any scientific reasoning for when to add raw stuff to a soup and when to give it some color first?

[@antonc81]

In classic French cookery there’s a distinction between blond and brown stock. For the latter you roast/caramelise the ingredients first giving a richer flavour, the former is more subtle. Clarifying is usually a separate step. Sometimes raw mince and egg whites are stirred into the finished stock over low heat, they coagulate as they cook and float to the top, forming a “raft” which has collected all the cloudy particles and proteins in the stock, the cook then gently ladles the stock off the top of the raft and passes it one ladle at a time through a fine sieve to catch any bits of the raft that he might have accidentally cough in the ladle. They might then use a paper towel to collect any data floating on top of the clarifies stock. The result is called consommé- the clearest stock you can get.

[@jamesellsworth9673]

Gotta try this! Does the process benefit from using a dry aging bag?

[@Elias_98]

I appreciate this video! I’m wondering, can you combine dry-aging with dry brining? Or would you need to wet brine to accommodate for water-loss during the dry-aging process?

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Dry-brining works well with this technique. I’d avoid wet-brining.

[@Elias_98]

@@ChrisYoungCooks I appreciate your quick response. I can’t wait to see more of your videos man! Keep up the good work

[@bostonbesteats364]

ChefSteps did a variation on this recently where they air dried it for 7 days!

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Oh, didn't see that. Was it on Studio Pass? In my experiments, the skin doesn't get much drier after 3 to 4 days, it starts to plateau to around 38 to 42% water content depending on which part of the skin and how dry your refrigerator is.

[@kchoi2227]

I think Chris young is actually the cofounder of chef steps 😂

[@jacklawrence6395]

@@ChrisYoungCooks They updated their "Ultimate Roast Chicken" recipe in place. They blanched first in boiling water and then air dried hanging in the fridge. There's also a companion studiopass-only behind the scenes/trails version called The Ultimate Guide to Roast Chicken, but I think the updated recipe is available to everyone. Curious to hear your thoughts!

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Jack Lawrence that’s more or less the approach I used with Heston for the Perfection TV series roast chicken. It’s a riff on Pekin duck technique. It has benefits, but it’s a lot more work for a small benefit IMO. But, then, they do call it ultimate. Ultimate usually equals a lot more work.

[@bostonbesteats364]

@@ChrisYoungCooks Yup Studio Pass, although there's also a free video about it that leaves some of the steps out

[@winniethepoohxi1896]

Would brushing it with oil before it goes in the oven ruin the crispiness or would it still be crispy and have a deeper brown color? Or maybe opening the oven and basting it part way through?

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Oil won’t hurt, but won’t do much for browning either. Just need a higher temperature blast to get a darker final color.

[@safecracker5458]

I just discovered your channel and have a combustion inc. thermometer coming. My question is at 140 degrees is it going to be safe to eat because it rested for enough time to hit 145 killing the bacteria because of time or temp? Is the rest of the meat going to render enough to be good? What is the rest time when pulled at 140 to kill the rest of the bacteria and what about the thigh and leg temps? Are they at a higher temp? Is the other meat done too or do you need to put the legs and thighs back in to finish cooking more?

[@neilhirsch772]

What do you cook with tallow or oil?

[@nicktasios1862]

This worked like a charm. Got the most tasty chicken ever, but my oven was a splattery mess. Is there any way to prevent that? I read elsewhere that you can put some liquid in the roasting pan, but I'm afraid that will reduce the crispiness.

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Water in the tray definitely hurts crisping. My suggestion is lining oven with foil to make cleanup a bit easier.

[@Swampster70]

I'm going to have to try this... ... but sadly my oven lies to me and that 500F is only really just under 480!

[@johnwoodard8717]

Does this help crisp the skin for smoked chicken, which often comes out leathery or rubbery?

[@MistressOnyaCox]

Fun ❤ and brush that brown bourbon paint in your turkey 🦃 episode ❤❤❤

[@thedude4795]

been airing my bird since monday, gonna try this tonight, super excited! does anyone know whether the salt rub applied just before roasting should be done with oil to make it stick? im a bit unsure how the salt will reach the inner mear such as breast?

[@Wetshoelaze]

How would I cook my sides without steaming my chicken?

[@happyundertaker6255]

My chicken is crisp. Also spatchcocked, salted, seasoned, and oiled👍.

[@hydroponikstuttgart4515]

I ask my self, could i slow cook the chicken to get it up to desired core temp,. then let it cool down, and just roast the skin shortly before serving?!

[@Eean1975]

Slow mo first base with that chicken. Like we didnt notice.

[@davestevens4193]

Pink and juicy chicken=the runs

[@TheWhiteDragon3]

That's also why Peking Duck is so crispy

[@sargundhillon2808]

When is the thermometer dropping?

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Finalizing a bunch of things behind the scenes. More news soon.

[@BBB_025]

@@ChrisYoungCooks I am very much looking forward to the thermometer. I signed up on the website.

[@funwithcars3154]

Hey Chris, tried your Instagram and Twitter links. Neither appear to be working.

[@zxcytdfxy256]

ok but how do I dry age it?

[@zvonimirleko2131]

Value of Modernist cousine presented as video courses could be great succes, as many people are visual type and could learn vith joy only that way...please, try it, and high price...to stimulate yourself doing it....I am sure, every high chef in Croatia 50 or more..will attain that cind of courses...

[@frezzingaces]

A wireless thermometer that's fucking crazy. Does it have a battery in it?

[@ChrisYoungCooks]

Yes, a very tiny special one. Recharges in about 10 min and runs for up to 30hrs on a charge.

[@matthewweitz1949]

Cool

[@TrudyConway]

Thank you for this info. I have tried everything to get a crispy skin on my chicken What kind of voodoo is this???? Just let it dry out in the fridge? It's a cliche but true to say that my life has been a lie. ~running out to buy a chicken~

[@ticalculator830]

In Europe specifically France you will find that chicken that has been Dry Aged is not uncommon, here in North America for some reason this is not the case sadly.

[@ambrosia453]

Comment for the algorithm

[@JL-lg9ys]

Hmmm I never had a problem to make a crisp brown juicy chicken in a EU oven with rotisserie. I used to have a standard Bloomberg household stove/oven 400V/10K watt, 3 phase. Here is USA, I have never seen/used any fast electric stove/oven. There just slooow. Sorry to say, that chicken you cooked, looks white and under-cooked. When you cut the breast, there is not much juice coming out, it almost looks dry. To have the right tools, is the half part of a jobs. Example that new thermometer, that read through the whole piece of meat, I guess you was not happy with, what you could get on the marked, so you have to create new one by yourself. PS: I'm biased toward 240/400 volt electrical appliance and design.

[@johnx9318]

Does your thermometer cater for the 7.7 billion of us who use Celsius or only the 330 million numpties who still cling on to Fahrenheit?

[@Viktor-HB]

260 °C for 40 minutes? It would burn

[@alexworm1707]

The skin might be crusty, but it look hideous, no color at all.

[@amwood7076]

Why don't you just start off saying this is a commercial for your thermometer. Its to expensive for average home cooks. Ive watched several of your eight videos and I'm just seeing commercial.

[@lewko1]

So you've watched a bunch of videos and you STILL need a special warning, just for you?