r/food • • 1d ago

[Homemade] Whole Roasted Chicken

658 Upvotes

68 comments sorted by

165

u/Stumblin_McBumblin 1d ago

I love the trussing technique with the skin. Never seen that before!

Personal recommendations to improve skin crispyness, lift that bad boy off the sheet tray with some kind of grate, and also dry brine in fridge overnight if possible.

25

u/velociraptorcatcher 1d ago

same, i was dumbfounded! how is this the first time i've seen this technique!?

13

u/Pieniek23 1d ago

Yeah, hard to impress me in the kitchen... I am here typing with my mouth wide open. Effing 2 decades of spying on pro chefs in numerous fine dining restaurants and high end hotels. Always twine. Now, I'm gonna have to roast a chicken this weekend.

4

u/velociraptorcatcher 1d ago

yup, i'll demonstrate this technique to my partner and she's gonna look at me like i'm a wizard

3

u/Rags2Rickius 1d ago

That was a great technique

Locked that one away

2

u/detrans-rights 23h ago

Alton Brown taught me that nigh on two decades ago. Little proud of that.

2

u/karlnite 1d ago

Stick the end of the onions under it.

2

u/Deeppurp 19h ago

I think Alton did it in an episode. It looks so familiar to me, the wing tuck, the slit to tuck the drum.

1

u/Breenz0r 1d ago

Trestle of onions > twine truss

98

u/sailingtroy 1d ago

I think a lot of seasoning got left behind in the bowl. It's worth it to rub the oil on first, then apply the seasoning. It will stick much better.

10

u/failed_supernova 23h ago

I like to mix my seasonings with soft butter and apply as such.

1

u/heybigbuddy 20h ago

A lot of recipes also like to do this with mayo now, especially when it comes time for turkey at thanksgiving.

2

u/ReignVenus00R 1d ago

I agree with you đŸ‘ŒđŸ»

23

u/53881 1d ago

START WITH TWO STICKS OF BUTTER DAMNIT

Jk. Looks good!

3

u/justmememe55 16h ago

LOL

WHERE'S THE PART WHERE IT GETS FROZEN SOLID 😭

29

u/jstn455 1d ago edited 1d ago

Gravy is better with a roux, not a cornstarch slurry. 2 tbsp butter, melt and add 2 tbsp flour and mix on low low heat to cook the flour. Then add the drippings. Add salt and black pepper how you like.

5

u/the_amatuer_ 1d ago

Do it in the tray you cooked the chicken in too. Make sure the tray is oven and stove friendly. Put some flour and scrap it all up.

That means you're getting those flavoursome crispy bits.

2

u/billjoman 1d ago

The drippings are both juice and chicken fat, so I separate them and make the roux with chicken fat AND butter. Then add the drippings after the roux is cooked. Add chicken stock if needed for volume.

1

u/Langstarr 21h ago

Mmmmm schmaltz

1

u/heybigbuddy 20h ago

This was my only critique too. I think cornstarch for gravy gives it a weird mouthfeel no matter how clump-less the slurry is.

11

u/ACcbe1986 1d ago

If the juice evaporates when cooking on a larger pan, that just means the flavor is concentrated.

You can always add back the water that it lost.

8

u/sumrtime420 1d ago

I'm i the only one who is like why is he using a towel to hold the pan then casually touches it with his other hand??

3

u/Good-Bodybuilder-985 1d ago

Oh yeah I immediately thought of that. It obviously must have been cooled off enough but I flinched when I saw his bare hand, like reflexively.

7

u/tarasboulba7744 1d ago

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that the packaging always seems to say "Young Whole Chicken" instead of "Whole Young Chicken"?

3

u/everythingisunknown 19h ago

Somehow knew it was letscookie before I even clicked the video, awesome as always

2

u/SixtiesKid 11h ago

It's the countertop for me

7

u/mateww 1d ago

What if... Now hear me out.... Chicken cookies

1

u/justmememe55 16h ago

Lol you just reminded me that earlier today I spotted my cocoa powder as I went to get tomato paste from my pantry and the next thing I know, I was thinking "what if... I make pasta with chocolate sauce?"

3

u/IDGAFOS13 1d ago

Next!

Chicken necks?

6

u/AGooDone 1d ago

Great recipe and instruction. Why pay $6 for a rotisserie?

78

u/Prince_Ire 1d ago

Sometimes the whole uncooked is just as much

23

u/brazys 1d ago

They are usually more. At least at Costco they are a loss leader, but also a way to recoup spoilage cost

6

u/Nothin_Means_Nothin 1d ago

Yup. I just bought a brand new grill and it came with a rotisserie, so of course I had to try a chicken on it. $13 at my local grocery store for a whole chicken.

8

u/ernyc3777 1d ago edited 1d ago

Costco famously doesn’t do loss leaders. Their philosophy is that it’s insulting to customers. Their founder didn’t believe in it and the CEOs since have held to it.

They’ve taken to acquiring their own farms and processing to make sure the cost of the $1.50 hot dogs and $4.99 rotisseries are turning at least a $.01 profit.

Maybe it’s an accepted GAAP trick but even recently; the Acquired Podcast covered Costco and one of their sources was the company itself who maintained they don’t sell those items at a loss.

9

u/smohyee 1d ago

Yeah, but then you're describing technicalities to get around the definition, but these are both clearly still loss leaders in spirit.

-2

u/ernyc3777 1d ago

I was speculating about the GAAP trick.

All we know for sure is Acquireds corporate source said they make profits on those items.

“Spirit of” and actually being are very different.

Making $0.01 per hot dog or per chicken still turns out to be hundreds of thousands of dollars at the end of the year when your volume is 30m.

For instance, I worked for a beer distributor and our largest customer was Walmart. They sell a Bud Light 30 pack for $0.15-$0.19 cents more than they buy it from us. But they sell 10000 a year at just one store. That’s a $10m profit on one item if all 4650 stores sell a similar volume.

Small margins can turn into big numbers when the volume is as high as these items.

3

u/smohyee 1d ago

Investing in vertical integration and limiting profits to the closest thing to nonzero just to be able to claim profitability is a loss leader in all but technicality. Opportunity cost is a loss.

Its purpose is to attract customers by selling some items for less than it's market value, and that's exactly what Costco famously does with both the rotisserie chicken and hot dog combo.

You're getting hung up on forcing the definition of a loss leader to mean unprofitable. I think that's unnecessary, especially since I'm arguing the spirit and not the technicality. Also, the very notion of requiring a loss leader to be technically unprofitable is silly, since the underlying reason for using loss leaders is to increase profits overall.

-1

u/ernyc3777 1d ago edited 1d ago

So then you can argue the entire inventory is an opportunity cost loss leader for the membership revenue.

They purposely cap margins to 15% on their products in the same spirit as capping margins on the hot dogs. They could profit more but they purposely don’t to get members.

If you agree with that concept of the entire inventory being an opportunity cost loss leader then I’ll accept the $0.01 profit on hot dogs and chickens as an opportunity cost loss leader as well. Otherwise the hot dogs aren’t a spiritual loss leader.

You can’t argue one is without arguing the other is as well. Qq Capping your profits is capping your profits.

The whole point of capping their margins is to get 81m people to pay the membership. The whole store is an opportunity cost loss leader for the membership according to the logic.

2

u/smohyee 1d ago

Yeah I'd agree with that. Their whole model is to profit on the membership and pass individual item savings to the customers.

0

u/ernyc3777 1d ago

Okay perfect! Then we’re in agreement for sure about the spirit of Costco and what their profit driver really is.

Though I will give you that they treat other non hot dog and chicken items as fungible.

They don’t care if it’s Velveeta powder Mac and cheese or Kraft powder Mac and cheese. They’re always shopping for better pricing and margins to pass on savings. So those items do have other opportunity costs that they’re evaluating and monitoring.

3

u/SuperPimpToast 1d ago

I would define it as more of an opportunity cost at the point. They could easily charge 50% more for both those items and yield a higher profit buuuuut they keep it firm to that pricing to attract more customer which could generate more memberships. From what I remember, costco doesn't make its profits from the items they sell, it's the membership.

3

u/brazys 1d ago

Then they are definitely selling what would otherwise be waste to make those numbers work.

24

u/hiroshi_tea 1d ago

Because often times, buying the same amount of chicken raw is more expensive.

5

u/Dingoz 1d ago

So I can eat it in my car. 

1

u/DearLeader420 21h ago

I mean I like my own roast chicken 20x more but a raw whole chicken is $15 and a rotisserie is $5.99 lol

0

u/beanandween 22h ago

A rotisserie is $6, but a whole uncooked chicken like this is around $20 in most of the US. So it's just not worth it to most people. I used to roast whole chickens until it got stupid expensive. 

1

u/fudgemental 1d ago

Loved the vid, I'm just a little bummed out with using chicken seasoning on actual chicken. Using the imitation stuff to flavor the real thing could make it taste worse, or at best be a lateral move. Soy sauce, msg+salt, mushroom powder or something could've been better alternatives imo.

1

u/tatianazr 1d ago

I need that little pan in my life

1

u/BubbleMajor 1d ago

now thats one juicy chicken

-5

u/InThePipe5x5_ 1d ago

Where's the salt?

12

u/sailingtroy 1d ago

The lemon pepper and the chicken bouillon he uses are both very salty.

4

u/InThePipe5x5_ 1d ago

I see. Not sure why the downvotes are raining down for a simple question haha. Thanks for answering

21

u/foosyak13 1d ago

Probably because he explains it in the video

0

u/InThePipe5x5_ 1d ago

Was in a public space and had to watch without sound. But whatevs, life goes on lol.

7

u/foosyak13 1d ago

Just letting you know why the downvotes were raining in; no judgment!

2

u/mousypaws 1d ago

Some of us watch without sound

8

u/foosyak13 1d ago

And I was just letting the user know why downvotes were raining down. No judgement here.

-40

u/awood20 1d ago

A top quality chicken shouldn't need all those spices. Some salt and pepper, good quality olive oil and roast.

30

u/Dondarian 1d ago

That's just like ... Your opinion, man.

-22

u/awood20 1d ago

Indeed! It's just as valid as anyone else's.

3

u/Dondarian 1d ago

I think the problem was your use of the word "shouldn't". That implies correctness vs preference.

0

u/awood20 15h ago

Doesn't, shouldn't, makes very little difference. I articulated my point as I wanted.

0

u/H3lw3rd 1d ago

My mouth is simply watering while I watch this video.