The Best Hack for Quickly Drying Chicken Skin



Never thought you’d use a hair dryer in the kitchen? We’ve got one reason to put it to use.

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25 Comments

  1. Does BAKING SODA rubbed into the skin also achieve this by raising the pH? I believe I read this in a food blog. The tip was shared in a recipe for baked “fried” chicken to allow the skin to crisp up in the oven.

  2. I still use some of your previous hacks like cutting the back skin & piercing fatty areas so the fat can drain out, and I've done the baking soda trick for crispier skin too, but it doesn't hurt to add another tool to my belt. I'll test this the next time I toast a chicken😊

  3. I have a counter-intuitive method for doing crispy skin on roasted chicken, adapted from a culinary trick used in Hainanese chicken rice to tighten up the chicken skin (even though in Hainanese chicken rice, the chicken is poached): use a pour-over kettle and pour boiling water over the chicken, to scald the skin, which causes the skin to tighten up. Then, immediately pat it dry. While it is hot from having been scalded, the water evaporates off of the skin quite rapidly.

    Scalding the skin modestly pre-cooks the skin so that fat renders out better once you roast the bird. If you can steam-scald the chicken, even better. The results are also more aesthetically pleasing.

    Scalding the skin is part of my no-string trussing method. Instead of trussing the chicken with string, I poke holes in the flaps of skin around the body cavity opening toward the tail end, and tuck the ends of the legs through the hole on the opposite flap, as shown in this video where I learned this trick from: https://youtu.be/zKU15a1WRJY?t=72
    Then, I jiujitsu the wings into that painful looking twisted position where the tips are behind the back, and I scald the chicken front-and-back and immediately pat it dry. The skin tightens up like shrink wrap, and the chicken holds together in a compact and structurally integral shape better than any string based truss, and looks better once it's roasted too. After that, I oil the bird, poke tiny holes in the skin to let the fat render out better and apply surface seasoning.
    Try this and compare it to your other methods, both in appearance and finished texture of the skin after roasting.

  4. Short and sweet ! Nice video ! Perfect for the cook that bought that fresh chicken the same day they want to cook it ! Brava ! Sometimes I don't have the option of seasoning my bird and drying it out overnight . It won't taste as good , but it will get it done . Thank you !

  5. Lots of comments unclear of the concept. The moisture in the skin needs to be out before putting the chicken in the oven. It steams during the cooking process. That is what an 'air-cooled' chicken is all about. The fridge is a dehydrating environment so it works perfect; except for the time needed. The salt brings that moisture to the surface and allows it to be patted off. The gentle (sic) heat from a hair dryer pulls more moisture from the surface of the skin. Rub with a fat, season and roast.

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