The Complete Guide to Making Roast Chicken at Home

Starting with a good chicken is non-negotiable. But what qualifies? First, look at its size and proportions. A small, three-pound chicken with relatively slim appendices will roast up best. “You don’t want to throw a chicken in the oven where the legs are so big that the breast gets overcooked [while the white meat is cooking],” says Waxman. If possible, look for a chicken that’s had a happy life. “We should all eat chickens that see the sunlight—they love to hunt and move around,” he says. If a butcher shop near you will neatly wrap a whole chicken in paper, jump for joy. “When you buy a chicken in a plastic bag, have you ever noticed how gross it smells?” asks Waxman. (The remedy for that sealed-in stink: wash the bird with hot water—without using soap—in the sink, being careful not to spray chicken water around your kitchen.)

Perhaps the single most crucial move in perfecting your roasted chicken game is drying the skin. That is because dry skin becomes crisp skin, even in a relatively low 375°F oven. The reason that many iconic chicken recipes have you start the chicken at a temperature as high as 450°F or 500°F—or even cook the whole time at this fat-splatter–inducing heat—is to ensure that the skin dries out enough to crisp and brown. But Waxman disapproves, in part because those hot oven temps threaten to mess up the meat. “That’s just not good for the bird. It’s delicate! You want the same consistent heat all the way through.”

To get golden skin at this cooler temp, start by patting the chicken as dry as possible with towels. Another dehydration technique chefs use is wrapping the chicken in towels and placing it in a clean, isolated spot in your fridge for several days. (Cover the towel-cloaked chicken with plastic wrap if you want to prevent it from absorbing your refrigerator’s weird scents, or from contaminating the nearby lettuce.) At restaurants like Barbuto, an entire walk-in fridge is devoted to chickens. Even that isn’t the chef’s dream. “The optimum thing to do would be to have them on a fridge shelf, at 35°F, with a fan blowing on them," Waxman says. Find your middle ground, but remember that dry equals gold.

To prep the chicken, cut off the flap of skin at the neck, as well as any extra skin and fat that’s hanging around. Reach into the cavity and pull out the liver and any additional parts the butchers have left you. Truss the bird, using kitchen twine to tie the legs together. “Trussing tightens everything up into one even thickness,” says Waxman. “If it’s nice and tight like a package, it’ll be evenly cooked.” Prep the wings by bending the first joint over the second joint to prevent the skinniest part from burning. Then, leave the chicken out at room temperature for an hour or two. “You don’t want to put a cold chicken in a hot oven,” says Waxman. “Bad things happen. The skin splits, the inside cooks slower, and the outside cooks faster. You get a crappy bird.”

Maybe you don't care about the drama of presenting a whole roasted bird to the table. In that case, you might want to consider cutting up the chicken before you put it in the oven. Here are two possible paths: first, you might spatchcock the chicken, which means making two cuts on either side of the backbone, removing the backbone, turning the chicken breast side, and pressing down to flatten. Or, you can cut the chicken in half through the front once the backbone is removed (which is what Waxman does at his restaurants) and then roast the two halves skin side up, bone side down. “To be 100 percent honest, halving is the easier way to do roast a chicken,” says Waxman. “It’s easier to baste, and easier to handle.” Proceed the same way no matter how you've prepped, though you'll want to check for doneness earlier if you’ve halved or spatchcocked.

All you need to season a chicken are olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pour the oil, grind on some pepper, and let the salt rain down just before putting the chicken in the oven. No need to salt your chicken days or hours beforehand, as many chefs love to do. The thought here is that hefty sprinkles of salt can both dry the skin and season the meat. Waxman, on the other hand, finds this technique imparts a funny flavor to the chicken as well as an odd texture to the skin. Waxman also eschews butter. Its flavor means “you lose some of the chickeniness,” he says. One more thing he skips: aromatics and potatoes in the pan. “No onions, carrots, nothing to mess around with our chicken," he says. "He’s very selfish.”

Pick a heavy, deep baking pan. “I love an old-fashioned ceramic pan,” says Waxman. “Or a rectangular casserole.” ​The heavy, dense material helps heat the chicken thoroughly and prevents it from sticking to the pan's surface.​ Having some depth can cut down on the amount of splatter your oven receives.

The oven temperature should be somewhere between 375°F and 400°F for the entire time, says Waxman. Some caveats on that: “Most people’s home ovens suck,” says Waxman. The first step towards turning your oven into a roast-chicken enabler is an oven thermometer, which reveals the actual, rather than the supposed, temperature. Always preheat the oven for an hour or two before you put the chicken in. Use the convection bake setting if your oven has one, to get the heat circulating, rotisserie-style. Cook the chicken on the middle rack. Know that gas ovens produce a moister heat than electric, which means you may need to crank up the temp to get the golden finish you want.

Finally, use the chicken itself as a gauge. Here’s how it should all go, according to Waxman: Put your prepped chicken in the oven and set a timer for 12 minutes. When it beeps, carefully shake the pan to release the skin, then pick up any fat and juices in the pan (there won’t be much yet) and baste the chicken. Rotate 90 degrees and cook for another eight minutes. At the next ping, repeat the same motion: shake the chicken, tilt the pan to pool the juice, and baste. “At this juncture, if the oven is pushing the skin too dark, turn the heat down by 25 degrees,” says Waxman. “If it looks like the skin is doing nothing, pump up by 25 degrees.” Rotate the chicken another quarter turn, then pop it back in for five minutes. Repeat this whole exercise four or five more times, for a total of 40 to 45 minutes of cook time. For a three-pound chicken, that’s when the skin should be crisp and brown and you’ll start checking for doneness. Rotating will ensure that it browns the chicken skin evenly.​The reason for all the basting is that it’s the only way to heat up the subcutaneous fat, says Waxman. “That’s the fat right where the wing hits the breast, and you want to get that to boil.” 

In general, chicken will cook for about 15 minutes per pound, says Waxman. Use your thermometer to test for doneness—you’re looking to register about 150 to 155°F really deep towards the bone in the thigh. If you’re not done when you expect, return the chicken to the oven and check again at five-minute intervals. Because the chicken will rest afterwards, the meat will continue cooking a bit post-oven, achieving the 165 to 170°F you’re truly after.

During the resting period, the meat reabsorbs the juices and finishes cooking. Don't skip this step, or you risk dried-out chicken. To rest, pull the chicken from the pan and place it on a serving platter or cutting board. Then, leave it somewhere warm—on top of the stove is Waxman’s recommendation—for at least 15 minutes, or for as long as 45. If the skin softens during this period, you can throw the chicken back in the oven for a few minutes to regain its crispiness. To stay occupied, turn your attention to sauces and sides.

To make a sauce, Waxman likes to pour off some of the fat from the pan and add a cup of water to the dish, which helps loosen all the brown bits stuck on the surface. Use a spatula to get all the caramelized flavor off the pan, then transfer the flavor-filled liquid to a smaller pan and simmer to reduce until sauce-like. To this, you can add herbs, garlic, or other seasonings. A pat of butter at the end will smooth out the flavor, and a dash of lemon juice will modify sauce that’s too salty.

If you want vegetables alongside your bird, you'll have to make them separately. Waxman likes to blanch them beforehand (a.k.a., boil them in salted water until they’re partially done). Once the chicken is out and resting on a board, you could throw potatoes, carrots, onions, or cauliflower into the roasting pan and cook them for about 20 minutes. “They’ll pick up the caramelization,” says Waxman. If you’ve made a sauce with the bits in the pan, find the extra chicken fat you poured off, mix with the veggies, and roast them in a new pan, or sauté them stovetop.

Don’t lose your confidence at the final moment. If you like roasting and eating chickens, you’ve got to learn to carve them, and the best way to learn is to dive right in, says Waxman. The goal is to separate the breast meat and the leg and thigh meat from the carcass; keep that in mind and carving might seem less mysterious.

To start, you’ll want a very sharp knife and one of those two-pronged carving forks. Place the chicken in front of you with the legs shooting off to the right and the breast to your left. Then, stick the fork in right above the wings, horizontal to the bird. Guide your knife along the fork, making incisions all along the breast. Then simply take out the knife and cut vertically along the edge of the breast to pry it off. Repeat that move on the other side of the breast before moving to the thighs, which are easier: Use your hand to push the leg down towards the cutting board, aiming to push the thigh out of its socket. Then, cut as close to the bird as possible. “If you cooked it right, that should happen without any problem,” says Waxman. You can separate the leg from the thigh, or cut the breasts in half, but you’re basically done. Serve with any vegetables you prepared and some sauce.

You can use our guide to carving a turkey for a visual aid.