- Hi everyone, I'm Amiel Stanek,
editor at large at Bon Appetit
and this is almost every
way to cook a chicken.
There's a whole world of
chicken out there, folks.
We got big chickens and little chickens,
old chickens and young chickens.
Yellow chickens and even black chickens,
but today we're gonna be working
with a good old-fashioned,
oh, hey, hold still!
[grunting]
Got you.
A good old fashioned
pasteurized broiler chicken.
This guy weighs about
three 1/2 to four pounds
and it's nice and compact,
so it'll cook as evenly as possible.
The light meat and the dark
meat cook very differently.
So, making sure the whole bird is juicy
and tender is no small feat
which is why we're gonna cook
it every way we can think of.
Poached chicken.
We got our pot of room temp water,
we're gonna season that
heavily with kosher salt,
lower the chicken in and then
we're gonna bring that up
to a boil, then cover it,
lower the heat and let it poach
for about 45 minutes.
Get this guy out of the
pot and poached chicken.
As you can see, no browning
at all in the exterior.
Leg is separating easily
which is how you can tell
it's nicely cooked.
The breast feels extremely juicy.
Mm, moist, really gently cooked.
Good seasoning, dark
meat, super succulent.
It lost a bit of flavor to the water.
Let's give that a try.
Mm, yeah, we have a very
light, tasty chicken stock.
Not super strong,
but let's see if we can fortify it a bit.
Chicken stock.
Here we have an already poached chicken
as well as the light
stock that it produced.
We're gonna get all of
the meat off of the bird
and set it aside.
Throw all these leftover
bones into the pot,
add a bit of celery, carrot, onion,
and we're gonna simmer
that for a few hours
so we can extract as
much flavor as possible.
All right, it's been about three hours.
We're gonna strain our stock,
then season it and that's
our homemade chicken stock.
This smells amazing!
And that color is beautiful.
Deep golden with little bits
of fat floating on the top,
let's give it a taste.
[slurping]
Ah!
Oh damn, that's good.
Rich and clean and
chicken-y and so comforting.
I'd take that over the
canned stuff any day.
Roast chicken three ways.
All right, we're gonna
roast three chickens,
but we're gonna prepare each
one slightly differently.
We're gonna dry this one off
as best we can with paper towels.
Drying is key to browning the skin
and then simply season
it all over with salt.
Now, this one we actually
salted 24 hours ago
and let it sit uncovered
on a rack in the fridge
which is a really drying environment.
This helps to get moisture out of the skin
more effectively and also
allows the salt more time
to penetrate the meat and
this one we're gonna dry off,
season and then dry the skin out
with the help of this
handy dandy hair dryer.
Now we're gonna pop them
each into a 450 degree oven
for about an hour and take them out
when they're ready.
Roast chicken.
So, this is the bird we salted
right before we roasted it.
Handsome color here, a bit
pale on the other side,
but that's just how the cookie crumbles.
Let's break it down.
Wow, look at all that juice, very moist.
The breast looks great.
Mm, really tasty, good salt on the skin
but not so much on the
interior and the dark meat.
Mm, so good.
Loving the caramelized flavor of that skin
which is the best part of any
roast chicken in my opinion.
Tender but with plenty of integrity.
The classics, they don't disappoint.
24-hour salted chicken.
This is the one we salted
24 hours in advance
and left to dry in the fridge.
The color is definitely a bit darker
and a little bit more even
and that's because the skin was dryer.
What a looker, breast
looks really on point.
Mm, wow, super juicy, great skin
and the seasoning really
penetrated the meat.
It's so much more flavorful
than our other roast chicken
and I think the extended salting helped
to tenderize it a bit.
The dark meat, mm, out of the park.
I love this chicken.
I cannot recommend this
method highly enough.
Hair dryer chicken.
Here's the chicken we tried to
dry out with the hair dryer.
There's maybe a little bit more browning
than on our salted a la minute bird,
but definitely not as much as we saw
on our 24-hour salted bird.
Not seeing a ton of payoff here.
Breaking it down, looks nicely cooked,
but nothing to write home about.
Mm, the breast is nice,
but it tastes the same as
our first roast chicken.
Mm, same with the dark meat.
I'm gonna say that hair
drying doesn't make
a difference at all.
So, I wouldn't bother with this.
Spatchcocked roast chicken.
We're gonna roast another chicken,
but this time we're gonna
Spatchcock it first.
What that means is we're
gonna take our chicken
and remove it's backbone
which will allow us to open
up the bird like a book
and expose all the skin on one side.
We'll cut along both
sides of the backbone,
set this aside for stock,
flip the bird over breast side up
and press down on it like we're dong CPR
until we feel it crack.
Dry it off, season both sides with salt,
get that onto a sheet pan,
and then pop it into a 450 degree oven
for about 30 to 40 minutes.
Beautiful!
The benefits of this
method are pretty obvious.
Gorgeous carmellization all over.
You got these nice,
dark, kind of bubbly bits
and it cooked in nearly half the time.
Breaking it down nice and easy,
uber juicy-looking white meat.
Mm, oh God, it's so good.
The seasoning is deluxe because
it got it from both sides,
and the whole thing cooked so
much more quickly and evenly.
And the dark meat, it's perfect too.
This is one of my all-time favorite ways
to cook a chicken.
Brick chicken.
We're gonna Spatchcock our chicken again,
season it with salt,
and then lay it into this
ripping hot cast iron pan.
Press down on it with this spatula
to get as much skin contact as possible
and then lay these two bricks
on top to weigh it down.
Then we're gonna pop it
into this 500 degree oven
to finish cooking for about 20 minutes.
Voila, chicken under a brick.
The browning is really nice.
It actually feels a little bit crispy
which is pretty hard to achieve.
Gonna break it down,
coming apart really easily.
Still has tons of juice in it.
Mm, really delicious, really tender.
Really nicely seasoned and the thigh, mm.
I love that dark meat.
Firm, just cooked and juicy tender.
I love cooking Spatchcock chicken.
You're changing the geometry of the bird
which does a lot to get
the different types of meat
to cook evenly.
That said, this method
is a lot more unwieldy
than our Spatchcocked and roasted
and that, that much better.
All right, for this next method,
we're gonna take things outside.
Grilled Spatchcocked chicken.
We got our third Spatchcocked bird.
We're gonna put this on
the grill skin side down
and close the lid.
Give it a quick flip so
we can cook the other side
and she's good to go.
Beautiful color.
The whole surface was able
to get direct medium to medium low heat.
It was done in about 25 minutes,
so it's a very efficient
way to grill a chicken.
It's coming apart really nicely.
Super moist, and that
breast looks spot on.
We're eating outside, I'm
just gonna use my hands.
Mm, incredible.
Tender, moist, killer browning,
and the skin almost crackles.
And even though the grill is gas,
we got some good, smoky char.
Mm, same with the dark meat.
Whether it's grilled or roasted,
you're gonna have to try pretty hard
to convince me that
Spatchcocking doesn't produce
a superior bird.
Beer can chicken, we got a beer.
[slurping]
We got a chicken, we're gonna
get this chicken on here
and then prop it up right on our grill.
See you on the other side, drunk chicken.
Looking good!
This is actually really impressive.
Golden color all around,
let's get the can out.
Oh, yeah.
That's a lot to look at.
Anyways, let's part it out.
Wow, the meat almost has a
pinkish sort of ring around it
which I normally associate with barbecue.
Mm, yum.
Great browning, breast is on point.
And the dark meat, mm, spot on,
but the one thing that it
doesn't taste like is beer.
And that can is still totally full,
but it was great for
propping up the chicken
so the dark meat got more
heat than the breast did.
Eh, it's a little gimmicky
and I don't think it's better
than our Spatchcock bird,
but still really tasty.
All right, now I'm gonna head back inside
and try something similar.
Bundt pan chicken.
So, now we're gonna use a Bundt pan
to kind of mimic the effect
of a beer can chicken.
Dry our chicken off, salt it, little oil.
Now we're gonna take some
foil and cover the hole
in the Bundt pan, set our
bird so it sits up straight.
And then get into a 425 degree oven
for about an hour.
That'll do it.
So, here we have our BPC
a.k.a Bundt pan chicken.
Let's get it off of this stan.
Wow.
That's kind of a lot.
So, anyways, yeah, this
looks pretty weird.
It's brown on top but the bottom half
just kind of steamed and
looks pretty obscene.
Carve it up.
I'm not worried about the leg,
but the breast is in trouble.
Mm, yeah.
Way overcooked and kind of chalky.
This method is confusing
because it feels like the part
that needs the most protection
got the most intense heat.
The dark meat is totally good,
but the skin is pale.
I don't know,
this method doesn't have
much going for it at all.
Rack roasted chicken.
We got our hot oven, we're
gonna put this sheet pan
on the bottom rack to
catch any chicken drippings
and then we're gonna take this
generously seasoned chicken
and slap it directly onto this oven rack.
All right, let's try to get
this out without dropping it.
Got you!
Well, I'm impressed so far.
Beautiful color up here on top,
really nicely burnished.
But this underside,
which I would expect to get a lot browner
considering it's totally exposed,
it's kind of a letdown.
What's the point of all that mess
if the bottom is gonna be so pale?
Gonna pop that leg off.
Cut it in half.
Take off a breast and slice it.
Wow, that breast looks kind of awesome.
Mm, super succulent, really nailed it.
And the dark meat, mm, also really tender.
I mean, honestly,
this is just a really good roast chicken,
but the method didn't add all that much
and made a hell of a mess.
I don't think I'd bother with this again.
Bag roasted chicken.
Okay, gonna season this with salt.
I'm not gonna bother drying this off
because it's kind of a wet
cooking method anyways.
Oil it up,
load our chicken into this oven safe bag
and cinch it closed.
Make a couple of slits
for steam to escape,
get it onto our sheet pan
and then cook it in a 350 degree oven
for about an hour and a half.
Good lord, that looks crazy.
Well, it's definitely in a bag.
It looks kind of like a
holiday gift basket from hell.
I can tell without even opening it
that it's a bit on the pale side.
Getting it open.
Wow, a lot of juice collected in the bag.
Barely any color, just
kind of steamed in there.
I mean, it's not, not tender.
And the breast, mm, not bad.
Definitely nicely cooked.
I'm really missing the complexity
that the caramelized lends.
Mm, same with the dark meat.
And the more I eat it,
the more it has a weird
plastic-y taste to it.
I'm not feeling this one, people.
Salt-crusted chicken.
This is gonna get weird, folks.
Here we have a bunch of egg whites.
We're gonna dump all of
this kosher salt in there.
Then mix it and knead it for a while
with our hands until
a sort of paste forms.
It's actually kind of nice
feeling, like wet sand.
Then, we make a little
bed on this sheet pan,
put our chicken right in the middle
and kind of mound this salt
crust all around evenly.
Smile!
Then, we get this into a 400 degree oven
for about an hour and 10 minutes.
Well, that is terrifying.
Okay, let's break this crust open.
Really firmed up on there.
So, the chicken didn't brown at all.
It just kind of steamed
inside that salt layer,
but it smells really nice.
Breaking it down, wow,
it feels very tender.
And the breast feels very supple.
Look at that!
Mm, very moist and really flavorful
and well-seasoned without
being over the top salty.
Mm, and that dark meat too.
You know what, it isn't much to look at,
but if you plated the meat
with some sauce and garnish,
you would more than make
up for that flabby skin.
It's gimmicky but
delicious, I'm here for it.
All right, let's head back outside
and make some smoked chicken.
All right, smoke 'em
if you got 'em, folks.
Chicken goes in.
[coughing]
And smoked chicken comes out.
Gorgeous exterior.
It almost looks fake
and the smell is out of control.
The skin almost has a
bit of a tackiness to it.
Oh wow, that's very tender.
Big low and slow vibes.
The leg just pops right off and
the breast looks very juicy.
Mm, wow, it almost tastes like sausage.
When smoke is concentrated
on the exterior,
there's just enough to perfume each bite.
Mm, and the dark meat, it's even better.
So rich and smoky.
I wanna make chicken salad with this.
Chicken on a string.
We're gonna bring it over
here to this fire pit,
hook it onto this tripod
and let that just kind of dangle here
while it cooks slowly by the fire.
Okay, this has been cooking
for a couple of hours
and we've been adjusting the
position from time to time,
but it looks about done.
All right, so here we
have our dangled chicken.
We got a little bit of
singeing right here.
Cooking over live fire is
an art and I'm no artist,
but the caramelization
all around is there.
Let's get it out of it's bondage gear.
And then part it out.
The breast looks a hair dry.
Mm, yeah, white meat could be juicer,
but the smoke flavor is
amazing and the dark meat.
Mm, oh yeah, that's good.
And this method is tricky to nail,
but it's super fun if
you're up to the challenge.
Deep fried chicken.
Okay, our chicken is all rigged up.
We got some 350 vegetable oil right here
and we're just gonna very
gently ease it into the oil
and let it go for about half an hour.
Get that out without burning
ourselves, fried chicken!
All right, let's take a look at this baby.
Aw, it's too cute to eat.
Ah, here we go, this is the chicken I met.
How pretty is that?
It's incredibly crispy and brown-looking.
Definitely a bit oily but
the color is so uniformed
because every bit was exposed
to the oil the entire time.
Break it down.
It seems like a lot of
moisture got locked in there.
Breast looks appealing.
Mm, and this tastes great
and the skin is crackly and delicious,
but a hair overcooked for my taste.
Dark meat is, mm, super.
You know, this is great,
but it's a lot of mess
and a bit hard to control.
I'd happily sacrifice
a bit of that browning
for a perfectly juicy roasted bird.
Let's get back inside and warm up.
Braised chicken, we got our
chicken, we got our Dutch oven.
We're gonna turn this on medium heat,
let it get nice and hot,
season our bird all over,
get a little bit of oil into our pot
and then sear it so it's
brown on both sides.
Add a bit of chicken
broth, let that come up,
cover it and simmer.
Not too shabby.
So, we got some color,
but the skin has gone kind
of slimy in the steam.
Definitely tender.
The leg's just kind of falling
apart, you love to see that.
The breast off nice and tight.
Mm, white meat is a bit over,
but it's still fairly moist.
I could of probably
pulled a little bit sooner
because that dark meat is really shred-y.
Mm, yeah, nice.
I bet the liquid in the pot
will make up for any dryness.
Mhm, oh yeah, a little
chicken juice solves
a lot of problems.
Delish!
Rotisserie chicken.
This part ain't pretty.
We're gonna season our bird, lube it up,
and then use this torture contraption
to rig it up as tightly as possible.
[grunting]
Okay.
Just gotta tighten that on there.
Okay, hook it into this rotisserie,
get it spinning
and come back when it's done.
Wow, that is something all right.
All right, so first we
gotta get it off this thing.
There it goes.
So, the bird kind of compacted
a little bit due to gravity,
but it has that signature
rotisserie tenderness to it.
Nice, even coloring all around.
Looks pretty nice.
Mm, that breast is so much
better than what you get
on a grocery store rotisserie chicken
that's been sitting under
a heat lamp all day.
Not as juicy as a roasted chicken breast.
Mm and the dark meat is shred-y
and juicy and delicious.
All right, let's take
this same idea outside.
Wood fired rotisserie chicken.
Okay, so we've got another
oiled and salted chicken
threaded onto this skewer.
We started this fire
and placed cinder blocks
on either side to help direct
the heat towards our chicken
while it's on this medieval
tanning bed of doom.
Now, let's get it spinning.
All right, looks done to me.
All right, let's get it off this skewer.
There's some browning, but
the color's pretty uneven
and that might just have to do
with how cold it is outside.
It feels pretty tender though.
Mm, definitely got some
good, smoked flavor.
I love that.
With the rotisserie,
you got the low heat and
you're constantly taking
the heat away and re-exposing the chicken
which does some cool
things, but I don't think
this outdoor rotisserie
necessarily produces much more
of a delicious bird than
a regular roasted chicken.
But let's head back inside
and try one more take
on this same idea.
Faux-tisserie chicken.
So, now we're gonna
try to mimic the effect
of a rotisserie by cooking our birdie low
and slow in the oven.
Season it generously
with salt inside and out.
Little bit of oil to help things along,
get it onto a sheet pan
and cook it in a 300 degree
oven for two 1/2 hours.
There she is, folks.
I mean, it looks like a
rotisserie chicken on top,
but the underside is
pretty pale and flabby
because it couldn't get any direct heat.
That dark meat is just
falling apart though
and it's really easy to
cut through the bone.
And the breast,
I can tell the breast
is a little bit over.
Mm, little bit dry, it's
still a good flavor.
And the leg is just incredibly tender,
really appealing, yum.
I mean, look, this definitely works
and yields a pretty tender bird,
but also is it better
than a real rotisserie
or a straight-up roast
chicken for that matter?
Microwave chicken.
Okay, gonna season our
chicken all over with salt,
rub it down with oil,
get it onto a plate and
slide it into this microwave
for about 20 minutes, here goes nothing.
Okay, pop it open and wow, oh God.
Yeah, that looks done.
Microwave chicken, everybody.
I'm actually kind of surprised
by how much color we got here.
There are definitely
some crispy-looking bits.
The other side, not so much.
It's definitely cooked though
and the breast, mm.
You know, I gotta say, the white meat
is juicier than I thought it would be,
but weirdly kind of tough
and the dark meat, mm, very
tender, pretty nice honestly.
I mean, not the most
elegant of preparations
and leaves much to be
desired including the skin,
but that said, I'm pretty impressed
by the microwave this time
around, instant pot chicken.
So, we got our instant
pot on the saute function.
We're gonna season our tied
up chicken all over with salt,
get some oil into the pot
and then we're gonna sear
the bird on all sides,
then add a bit of water,
close the lid and let it pressure cook.
Oh, wow, okay.
Yeah, we kind of lost control of this one,
she's gone to pieces.
Once again, we got a bit of
color from the saute function,
but then it totally sogged out.
It's really just falling apart
which isn't a bad thing
for this dark meat.
Mm, yeah, that's insanely
tender, shreddable, delicious,
but the breast, yeah,
that's not looking too hot.
Mm, yeah, parched.
You know, the instant pot would be great
for making a big batch
of pulled dark meat chicken,
but not a whole bird.
We scarified the white
meat for the dark here,
so the whole package
isn't all that impressive.
Air-fried chicken.
We meet again, counter droid.
We're gonna tie the leg so it fits.
Salt it, little oil.
Open this tray and get our bird
into our pre-heated air fryer
and set it for 40 minutes.
Well, it dinged.
Looking good.
Loving the way the skin looks here.
Gorgeous browning, burnish,
mahogany, almost crackly.
The underside, pretty pale
though which is disappointing.
Cut that string.
The meat is coming apart really easily,
looking at the breast.
Mm.
That white meat is way over, very dry,
but the skin has incredible flavor.
The dark meat, much more
forgiving, very supple.
The air fryer would be a great way
to cook some chicken
thighs, but a whole bird?
Not so much.
Sous-vide chicken, science time.
All right, a little salt,
get it into this bag,
and then suck out all of the
air with this vacuum sealer
and seal it, great.
Now, we're gonna get it into this pot,
fit it with an immersion
circulator set to 150 degrees.
Okay, now that the whole
chicken is up to temp,
we're gonna get it out of the bag,
pat it dry and use this Searzall,
which is a modified blow torch
to get some color on that skin.
Geez, this is taking forever.
Getting kind of bored.
All right, good enough.
So, this chicken has got
a great, compact shape
because of the way it
cooked under pressure
and this Searzall was able
to give us some decent,
somewhat spotty browning all around.
Looks like a cheese pizza kind of.
All right, let's break it down.
This meat feels really nice.
Wow, look at how juicy that
piece of breast meat looks.
Mm, yum.
That breast is insanely moist.
The meat is dense and
really tender and flavorful.
I mean, you basically can't
overcook meat this way.
The dark meat, mm, not shred-y or braisey,
but amazingly tender.
I only wish this Searzall
hasn't been so hard
to work with in this context.
Better browning would be nice,
but otherwise this is a
perfectly cooked chicken.
Okay, today we cooked
a whole lot of chickens
a whole lot of different ways.
What did we learn?
Well, for one thing, it's pretty tough
to mess up the dark
meat on a whole chicken.
It's really rich and super forgiving,
but getting that white meat just right
is what really set our methods apart.
To that end,
some of our best and
simplest methods ended up
involving high or direct heat
and Spatchcocking the bird
to expose all of it's skin
was a total game changer.
Have a favorite way to cook a chicken
that you didn't see here today?
Leave it in the comments.
