For Better Roasted Chicken, Start With A Cold Oven

You could bring home one of Costco's rotisserie chickens, but roasting your own bird, seasoning it to your liking, and smelling its unctuous aroma fill your home, is one of life's great pleasures. If you want that ever-so-desirable crispy chicken skin, you might be surprised to learn that it all starts with a cold oven. Prepare your recipe as usual, but instead of preheating the oven, set the temperature at 425 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit after placing the chicken inside.

It may feel wrong not to preheat your oven, but the cold oven method also crisps the bird's skin without drying the breasts (which you would usually combat with butter under the skin). It's similar to the reverse-sear method, where you start low and slow, then let the meat come to temp before finishing with a blast of heat. But in this case, you're keeping your protein in one spot — the oven — throughout the cook. In theory, the moisture coming out of the bird will then gently steam it, heating the chicken throughout before you hit it with the final high-heat to crisp the skin. All you need is time and an instant thermometer to check when it's finished, and you'll be set.

If you demand only the crunchiest chicken skin when you're cooking up a basic but foolproof roasted chicken at home, removing the skin and cooking it low and slow works exceptionally well. With a sharp knife, you can carefully remove all of the chicken's skin at once or cut off the skin on top of the chicken in parts. You'll need a drying rack on a cookie sheet to spread the skin out wide so it cooks evenly. Then, season it to your taste, and enjoy some of the crispiest chicken skin you've ever had.

Whether you're bringing home a chicken from Costco or making your own with the cold oven method, reheating roasted chicken can be a struggle. In storage, the skin can become mushy, or if left to sit out, chicken can lose a few degrees off its safe-to-eat temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, landing in the danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily, there are several ways you can reheat chicken, and it can be as simple as putting it in the air fryer for five to 10 minutes. You can also use the convection setting in your oven, pop it into a quick-heating toaster oven, or remove the skin and cook it separately to your heart's desire.