The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

second theory applies only to barding, and it’s that
the layer of fat will provide insulation to help the
meat cook more gently and prevent it from drying
out. This much is true, but here’s the problem: as
much as I love most things more when they’re
wrapped in bacon (yes, dear, I’m talking about you),
bacon makes mild chicken and turkey taste like, well,
bacon. And if I wanted bacon, I’d cook bacon. (Then
again, if you are the type who likes that flavor in
your turkey or chicken, go for it!) It also precludes
the possibility of crisp skin.
In fact, not only does basting the breast with hot
pan juices increase the rate at which it cooks,
exacerbating the dryness, but the moisture in the
juices or melted butter also keeps the skin from
crisping properly. A far better solution is to brush
your bird occasionally with room-temperature oil
(or rendered duck or chicken fat, if you want to get
fancy) as it cooks. This will help you achieve deeper,
more even browning, but it won’t affect moistness in
any way.
Trussing—the act of tying up the bird’s legs
before cooking—is also an oft-recommended but
totally pointless exercise. In fact, it has the opposite
effect of what you want for a bird, effectively
shielding the inner thighs and thereby making the
slowest-to-cook part cook even more slowly.
Chickens and turkeys should always be left as nature
intended them: with their legs wide open, to allow for
maximum heating via convection.