The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

thirty times per year (every single time you eat chicken, that
is), then you could be doing at least a little bit better.
As with anything else, the key to perfect poultry is
knowledge, care, and some practice. I can’t help you with
the last, but I just might be able to lend a hand in the first
two categories. In researching the subject for this book, I
roasted well over sixty birds, no two the same way—and
that’s not counting the hundreds, if not thousands, I’ve
cooked in my lifetime.
Whether it’s a young chicken with just enough meat on its
bones to make a hearty meal for two or the Thanksgiving
centerpiece for a family of twelve, the basics of selecting
and cooking a chicken or a turkey are not all that different.