The Art of Perfecting Chicken: A Chef's Approach

For our chicken at Chef Step, we do things a little differently. It takes a few more days, but it doesn't take much work at all. To start, you take a few minutes in the beginning and a few days in advance to remove the wishbones. This is usually done with any chicken, just to help with carving later. After that, bend the wings behind the back, which actually stretches out the breast quite a bit and smoothes up the skin. We also trust the legs together just at the joints when you want to keep them tight, and get lots of layers of twine behind them. If you don't do enough twine, the twine can actually roast and sear away during cooking, causing it to fall apart. By getting the right amount of twine, we achieve a nicely shaped chicken.

The Next Step: Brining

Next, we make a brine using nice cold water for this purpose. The brine is made with a nice salty solution, and you can play around with the salt and sugar levels as you want. We just stick to salt in ours, but feel free to experiment with different flavors. Without puncturing the skin, we inject the breast and thighs with the brine, which makes the meat juicier and more flavorful later on. Once you've done that step, hang it in the fridge for up to a day, 2-3 days, or whatever time frame works best for your needs. We do things a little differently by cooking them in two stages.

Cooking Chicken in Two Stages

So, our chickens go right from the fridge to the oven, where they're cooked at an incredibly low temperature - as low as possible. Commercial ovens tend to be slightly lower than home ovens, which can cook at around 170 degrees Fahrenheit. You can actually cook them at almost any temperature you want for interior-wise purposes. Once we've reached that temperature, we take the chicken out of the oven and turn it up to a much higher heat. This way, they're cooked and ready to eat without being glassy or crispy - just nice and golden.

The Final Touches

When you're ready to serve your chicken, simply pop them back in the oven for a few minutes to get them seared. You want the surface of that chicken to be hot, so crank up the oven as high as it can go. This will give you about 7 minutes in a home oven - if you're using a commercial one, it might take longer, around 10 minutes. Yes, this does make a good amount of smoke, so be prepared for that. Once they're seared, let them hang for just a few minutes to cool down enough to handle. The surface of the chicken is extremely hot, so you'll want to handle it carefully.

Carving and Serving

The key to serving our chicken perfectly is to carve into it as soon as possible. You can see how easy it comes off the carcass - that's what we aim for with every piece of food like this. The breast should be juicy, flavorful, and have a crispy skin. And that's exactly what you get when you follow our approach to cooking chicken at Chef Step.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso for our chicken here at chef step we do it a little bit differently and it takes a few more days but it actually doesn't take much work at all you take a few minutes in the beginning a few days in advance to remove the wishbones that's it usually do with any chicken really just to help carving later pop those out thinking you want to do after that is bend the wings behind the back and that actually stretches out the breast quite a bit and smoothes up the skin we trust the legs together just at the joints when you want to trust them very tight and you want to get a lot of layers of twine behind them if you don't do enough twine the twine can actually roast and sear away actually when you're cooking it so you get lots of twine that way they don't fall in the oven on the last step nicely beautiful naturally shaped chicken next step we do is we make a brine and use nice cold water for this and you make a nice salty brine and you can play with the salt and sugar levels as you want we just do salt in ours and then without puncturing the skin we inject the breast and the thighs and pretty much any meat you're going to eat you want to eat the meat put some brine in it it'll make it juicier and more flavorful later once you do that step you hang it in the fridge for up to a day 2 3 4 days it really depends on your fan and when you need it really one thing we do a little bit differently is cook them in two stages so they go right from the fridge to the oven really really low temp cooking low as you can go commercial ovens go a little bit lower home ovens go about 170 Fahrenheit and you can really cook them at almost any temperature you want interior wise we cook ours to about 62 to 63 Celsius that's 144 146 degrees Fahrenheit once we're at that temperature we take them out and turn the oven all the way up so they're cooked and ready to eat right now but they're just not glassy they're not crispy skins not nice and golden and that's what we want for our breast chicken whenever you're ready to eat them you want to pop them back in the oven just for a few minutes you crank the oven up make sure it's preheated hot as you can go and you're going to see them for just about seven minutes if you're in a home oven again you probably gonna go a little bit longer maybe 10 minutes or so and yes it does make a good amount of smoke so just be ready for that once they're seared we let them hang for just a few minutes that's to just let it cool just enough so we can handle it because the surface of that chicken is very very very hot here I'm just showing you how crispy it is but I wouldn't normally break up the skin like that just start carving away and serve it you can see how easy it comes off the carcass how did you see the breast is how crispy the skin is and like with any food like this you just want to serve it as quick as you can that's all juicy juicy juicy flavorful meat and glassy skinso for our chicken here at chef step we do it a little bit differently and it takes a few more days but it actually doesn't take much work at all you take a few minutes in the beginning a few days in advance to remove the wishbones that's it usually do with any chicken really just to help carving later pop those out thinking you want to do after that is bend the wings behind the back and that actually stretches out the breast quite a bit and smoothes up the skin we trust the legs together just at the joints when you want to trust them very tight and you want to get a lot of layers of twine behind them if you don't do enough twine the twine can actually roast and sear away actually when you're cooking it so you get lots of twine that way they don't fall in the oven on the last step nicely beautiful naturally shaped chicken next step we do is we make a brine and use nice cold water for this and you make a nice salty brine and you can play with the salt and sugar levels as you want we just do salt in ours and then without puncturing the skin we inject the breast and the thighs and pretty much any meat you're going to eat you want to eat the meat put some brine in it it'll make it juicier and more flavorful later once you do that step you hang it in the fridge for up to a day 2 3 4 days it really depends on your fan and when you need it really one thing we do a little bit differently is cook them in two stages so they go right from the fridge to the oven really really low temp cooking low as you can go commercial ovens go a little bit lower home ovens go about 170 Fahrenheit and you can really cook them at almost any temperature you want interior wise we cook ours to about 62 to 63 Celsius that's 144 146 degrees Fahrenheit once we're at that temperature we take them out and turn the oven all the way up so they're cooked and ready to eat right now but they're just not glassy they're not crispy skins not nice and golden and that's what we want for our breast chicken whenever you're ready to eat them you want to pop them back in the oven just for a few minutes you crank the oven up make sure it's preheated hot as you can go and you're going to see them for just about seven minutes if you're in a home oven again you probably gonna go a little bit longer maybe 10 minutes or so and yes it does make a good amount of smoke so just be ready for that once they're seared we let them hang for just a few minutes that's to just let it cool just enough so we can handle it because the surface of that chicken is very very very hot here I'm just showing you how crispy it is but I wouldn't normally break up the skin like that just start carving away and serve it you can see how easy it comes off the carcass how did you see the breast is how crispy the skin is and like with any food like this you just want to serve it as quick as you can that's all juicy juicy juicy flavorful meat and glassy skin\n"