channels for the rendering fat to escape your bird.
The most effective means of doing this is to butterfly
the bird. You end up with all the skin on top of the
meat, exposing it all to the full blast of convective
heat from the oven and leaving plenty of room
underneath for the rendering fat to drip down and
around the meat. If you are going to keep your bird
whole, you should at the very least separate the skin
on the breast from the meat to allow room for fat to
drip out (see here).
To increase airflow and make heating more
efficient, I also advise using a heavy-duty rimmed
baking sheet with a wire rack set on it in stead of a
roasting pan with a V-rack. The high sides of a
roasting pan can interfere with airflow, leaving you
with chicken or turkey that’s still flabby and pale in
its undercarriage. The only time I use a roasting pan
instead of a baking sheet is for extremely large
roasts, like a big turkey or a standing rib roast. If it
fits on the baking sheet, I’m using the baking sheet.
If you want the skin of your roast chicken to stay
crisp longer, remove it from the bird right after you
take it out of the oven and serve it separately. This
will prevent steam from the meat from softening it
again.
SEPARATING THE SKIN FOR
CRISPER SKIN