The Old-School Cooking Technique Your Grandma Probably Used For Juicy And Tender Chicken

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If you're looking for an easy way to cook melt-in-your-mouth, flavorful chicken, there's one old-school method that stands out for being easy and effective. This vintage technique was popular in the U.S. during the mid-20th century, though it has existed in the culinary world since much earlier in a variety of forms: cooking chicken in a bag.

Though it sounds like an unusual concept, cooking chicken in a bag is quite effective for making a dish that's incredibly tender and juicy. The method that was popular for home cooks a few decades ago included using a brown paper grocery bag, a whole chicken, and choice herbs and spices. It's the same idea as cooking en papillote, which can be a game changing technique for cooking chicken using parchment paper. Though cooking en papillote was traditionally done with fish, it is a wonderful technique for cooking chicken, too. It works well because of the steam that develops. When it's roasted in the oven, the bag holds the steam's heat and retains moisture, cooking the chicken evenly and more quickly than simply roasting it in a baking pan. In addition, because the paper bag is porous, some steam can be vented, allowing a golden-brown skin to develop. 

The practice of cooking in a bag has a rich history and a variety of uses. It can even be used as a cooking hack during a camping trip. The idea of cooking in a paper bag was popularized by chef Nicolas Soyer, when he was cooking fish en papillote as a private chef to the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle. To promote the technique, he published Soyer's Paper-Bag Cookery in 1911, for home cooks who needed a clean and less labor-intensive cooking method. This technique was also popular in 1950s France. Chef Fernand Point, considered the founder of modern French cuisine, prepared chicken in a bag at the Michelin three-star restaurant La Pyramide. In his version, a moistened pig's bladder was used as the bag.

Because the technique was so popular, companies reinvented the bag concept and manufactured food-safe alternatives, as brown grocery store bags contain glue and chemicals. If you'd like to try cooking a basic but foolproof recipe for whole chicken, consider altering it by cooking it in an oven bag, which is made from FDA-compliant heat-resistant nylon. You can also cook en papillote using a parchment bag, such as the PaperChef Parchment Bags on Amazon.