I find that the biggest enemy of succulence in roast fowl is overcooking. (followed by a couple of things)
This is indeed a somewhat large subject, but there are a couple of key points I think are the difference between a good, juicy bird and a dry and horrible one.
First, though it is traditional to stuff a whole bird that is being roasted, stuffing the cavity of the bird is a bad thing. By the time the stuffing is up to temperature, the meat is toast. It is a much better idea to use the cavity to hold things that will enhance the flavor of the bird. Slices of citrus, sprigs of herbs, chunks of onion and garlic... whatever you think goes well with poultry.
Second, never rely on a recipe or a chart for cooking your bird. You see things all the time that say "roast for x amount of hours at x degrees," but this won't work, except in the oven of the person who wrote the chart, with the same sized bird they used. There are just too many variables involved; actual oven temperature, size and shape of the bird.... Instead, roast the bird to temperature. I like to use a digital thermometer that has a detachable cable probe. The probe in the bird sends signals to the brain of the thermometer, which stays outside the oven. This way you can easily monitor the progress of your bird without opening the oven door, and most of these devices can be set to sound an alarm when the target temperature is reached. In the case of poultry, this should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 165 degrees, with the probe inserted in the thigh meat.
Third, basting is worse than a waste of time. All it does is extend the cooking time by ten to twenty minutes every time you open the door, and trust me, none of that basting juice is going to end up inside the meat.
Fourth, allow your bird to rest before carving. I lightly tent chicken under foil, and let it rest about fifteen minutes. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the muscle tissue. If you carve it right after it comes out of the oven, people will probably say "Oh, look how juicy it is," but that is because they are watching the juice run onto the cutting board, instead of staying in the bird where we want it.
To review:
1) Don't stuff the cavity
2) Cook to temperature, not time
3) Don't baste
4) Allow the bird to rest before carving
There are other things, like brining, to take into consideration, but if you follow the above four steps, you will have a perfectly cooked juicy bird every time.
Watch Chef Todd's videos about poultry. He explains, as I recall, about brining, and also demonstrates a rather ingenious method for stuffing that avoids the above mentioned problems.
Oh, and these principles apply to roasting in general: turkey and other fowl, as well as pork, beef, and other roasts. Only the target temperature varies depending on what critter you're cooking; the technique remains the same.
May 05, 2009 Rating
Roasting vs Baking by: Chef Todd Mohr
Jamie-
Your question is one that is asked frequently. In the strictest definition, Roasting should be a protein product, baking refers to leavened baked goods.
How to roast a chicken is too great a question for me to answer here, plus, I have 160 videos for you to find the answer from. Check out the "Oven Temperatures/Roasting" episode and "Roasting Turkey" for many of these mysteries clarified.
