I finally figured out why my roast chicken always dried out

I spent about 6 months following every online recipe to the letter, checking temps with a probe, and still ended up with dry breast meat every time. Turned out it was because I wasn't letting the bird rest long enough after cooking - I was cutting into it after 5 minutes instead of 15. Has anyone else struggled with a basic cooking rule that took you way too long to get right?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_carter9d ago

Wait, did your friend ever figure out what they were doing wrong with their baked potatoes? My buddy Jake spent like a year making these sad, hard baked potatoes and couldn't figure out why. He was doing everything right - rubbing them with oil, salting the skins, baking at the right temp. Turns out he was poking them with a fork before baking (you know, the standard advice), but he was only doing it once or twice. He needed to stab them like eight times all over so the steam could actually escape. Once he started really going to town with the fork holes, they came out fluffy and perfect every time. It was such a simple fix and he felt so dumb about it later.

nora_walker579d ago

omg wait @faith_carter you just blew my mind rn. i always thought the fork thing was just a myth or like not that important lol. i used to just do like 3-4 quick stabs and call it done, but now i get it. your buddy's story totally changed my thinking on this. i'm gonna try the 8-stab method next time i make potatoes and see if it saves them from being dense rocks.

the_wren7d ago

My buddy Mike had the exact same problem @nora_walker57, he was making hockey puck potatoes for months until his grandma watched him one time and lost it laughing. She grabbed the fork and showed him how you have to stab from every angle until the potato looks like it went through a minor car accident. He was doing just 4 little holes on top and wondering why they came out dense, the 8 stab method is legit.