Heston Blumenthal roast chicken
I just watched Heston Blumenthal - Perfect Roast Chicken where he does a few thing unconventionally.
He roasts the chicken at approximately 200 F and stops the roasting process when the internal temperature of the thickest part of the breast reaches 140 F.
Has anyone tried this method? I don't think I have seen chicken roasted at such a low temperature. For a 5-6 lbs chicken, the cooking time might even reach 4 hours in the "danger-zone"
I am also curious if anyone verified his metric of ending the roasting process at internal temperature of 140 F. I am not sure juices run clear at that temperature.
Best Answer
The USDA FSIS puts out Time-Temperature Tables for Cooking Ready-To-Eat Poultry Products (PDF). They recommend holding the fattest parts of a chicken at 140°F/60°C for 35 minutes to ensure safety.
The time is increased greatly as you lower the temperature only a little (for example, it becomes 53 minutes 138°F, a mere 2°F lower). If you raise the temperature a little, it's much shorter (23.5 minutes at 142°F). As he says in the video, the food safety agencies recommend a higher temperature—the normal recommendation is 165°F.
The 165°F is to allow a safety margin, in case:
- Your thermometer is off. As you can see, a few degrees make a lot of difference.
- The spot you probed wasn't actually the coolest part of the bird.
The recommended times in the tables are for the worst-contaminated bird the USDA believes you could run into, which is probably far worse than the bird you're actually preparing.
As to the juices, its doubtful they run clear at 140°F. But the color of the juices is not a reliable way to determine if chicken is safely cooked.
It's up to you (and the people you're feeding) how much safety margin you're willing to remove. But note that if you use an accurate & calibrated thermometer, probed in several spots to find the coolest, and take the bird to 151°F, then leave the thermometer in as it rests, as long as it stays ?150 for 4.2 minutes (?149 for 5.4 minutes, or…), FSIS says its safe. That's still going to leave you pretty juicy chicken, though not quite as much as at 140°F.
Beware, it will not have the texture you expect!
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ANTHONY BOURDAIN'S ROAST CHICKENRub the bird inside and out with salt and crushed peppercorns. Stuff a half tablespoon knob of butter under the skin of each side of the breast skin, and under the skin of each thigh. Stuff the thyme, bay leaf, and lemon wedges into the chicken's cavity.How does Anthony Bourdain roast chicken?
We all know how much better a turkey tastes if you brine it before roasting it. But we're about to take things a step further: You should also be brining your chickens\u2014and not just for special occasions, like holiday roasts. A brine adds flavor and keeps the meat tender and juicy.Heston's Perfect Crispy Roast Chicken - part 1 - BBC
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Answer 2
derobert's comment about both temperature and time for food safety is spot on. Kenji Lopez-Alt also wrote a good article about this:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast.html (see the Pasteurization Time section)
The method you described seems to be questionable for getting well-cooked legs and thighs. At that temperature, legs and thighs will usually be chewy and bloody, although I imagine the length of time might compensate for that a bit. But that is the other drawback: roasting at 200 F will take forever, not to mention you will get a rather mushy skin instead of a crispy one.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Engin Akyurt, Tim Douglas, Alena Shekhovtcova, Tim Douglas