When you think "roast chicken," chances are you're picturing a burnished bird on a baking sheet or roasting pan. But watch pro butcher Jesse Griffiths roast a chicken directly on an oven rack (that's right—no baking sheets allowed!) and you'll very quickly realize that you've been doing it all wrong. The owner of Dai Due in Austin, our no. 6 Best New Restaurant of 2015, recently showed us his go-to technique, and, ever since, we've become unofficial evangelists for rack-roasting. Here's why we love it:
Dai Due's basic recipe for Rack-Roasted Chicken is so simple, it's worth committing to memory. If you <a he="http://weightloss-tricks.today/recipe/dai-dues-master-brined-chicken%22 target="_blank">brine your bird</a> before you roast it (and you should be), you won't even have to season it. Easy.
Rack-roasting means the whole chicken is surrounded by dry heat the entire time it cooks—which means every last bit of skin gets nice and crispy.
Grab a pan, fill it with any mix of vegetables you want—we like potatoes, shallots, and carrots, but whatever veg you have will work—and set it on the rack directly under your chicken. As the chicken roasts, all those delicious juices will render straight onto the vegetables, delivering flavor no drizzle of olive oil can match.