The Biggest Mistake You’re Making When Roasting Chicken, According to Our Test Kitchen

I eat a lot of chicken. It’s pretty much my main source of protein and since I’ve made it my goal to cook more in the New Year, I’ve been handling it more and more. As part of this new goal, I’ve decided to tackle the ultimate challenge: roasting a whole chicken.

But as I started to scan roast chicken recipes, I suddenly realized just how intimidated I was by the process. In an effort to help ease my mind, I decided to consult the Allrecipes test kitchen experts on what’s the biggest mistake I could make. 

The Most Common Roasted Chicken Mistake

The answer was actually so simple, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it first when I was looking up recipes. According to Vivien Tran, our Food Stylist Assistant Fellow, the answer lies in correctly taking the internal temperature of your chicken. “The biggest mistake is not temping the chicken in the deepest part, like the breast, to see when it’s actually done,” she explained.

Giovanna Vazquez, our Test Kitchen Fellow, had a first hand experience with not temping her chicken correctly. “I was still in culinary school and made the mistake of not temping in the deepest part. Although it looked gorgeous, when I cut into the chicken it was completely raw,” she said. “Make sure you temp before taking the chicken out of the oven.”

How to Correctly Temp Your Roasted Chicken

To make sure you are taking the internal temperature of your roasted chicken properly, insert an instant-read thermometer into the deepest part of the chicken breast, as this is the last place the chicken will cook. If you just temp the top of the breast or a thigh, which cooks first since it's on the outside, you might end up with a bird that's still raw on the inside. Want your chicken to cook more evenly? Lauren Odum, a Food Styling Assistant, recommends spatchcocking it, which allows the bird to lay flat in the oven, increasing the surface area of the chicken so that the breast cooks closer to the same rate as the dark meat.

Although controversial, Tran likes to pull the chicken our of the oven when it's a little lower than what’s recommended. “I like to temp at 160 rather than 165,” she said. “It keeps the chicken juicy while also still being cooked all the way through.” This is because after you pull the chicken from the oven, it will continue to cook as it rests before you carve (a tip we also learned from the great Ina Garten). I'll definitely be trying that on my next chicken roasting attempt—wish me luck!

Read the original article on ALLRECIPES