Recipe
How to prepare crispy chicken skin
Cooking Time
40 minutes
Cooking Method
Roasting
Servings
12
Cuisine
American
Ingredients
Whole chicken
Salt
2 large cloves of garlic
1 Lemon
10 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 tablespoons - brown sugar
2 tablespoons - olive oil
1/4 teaspoon - Black pepper
READ ALSO
Method
Ground, garlic, lemon zest, and thyme together. This releases the flavors from the herbs and aromatics.
Scrape the salt and herbs into a bag that's large enough to hold the chicken. Add the brown sugar and water and swirl around to dissolve the salt and sugar.
Prepare the chicken and put the chicken in the brine and then squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can. Seal the top shut and put the chicken in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
When the chicken is done brining, remove it from the brine and use paper towels to thoroughly dry the skin and remove any errant pieces of herbs or garlic.
Salt the skin and put in the freezer overnight to draw out moisture from the skin and also create salty, dry brine.
Remove chicken from fridge and add some cooking fat back to the chicken.
Rub your chicken with canola or extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkle any desired spices that you like salt and pepper is perfectly legitimate, but paprika, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder are easy adds, as well.
Put your chicken, skin side down, on a cast-iron skillet over medium heat.
and roast until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees F (71 C) at the thickest part of the thigh. The amount of time this will take depends on the size of your chicken.
Turn up the heat to 450 F and continue roasting the chicken another 5-10 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and crisp all over.