Today I’m walking you through a cooking technique that will serve you well for the rest of your life: how to carve and plate a roast chicken!
A roast chicken is an elegant meal worthy of any special occasion, yet it’s also easy enough to pull off on an ordinary weeknight. The recipe that will land in your inbox this Saturday (roast chicken with onion gravy and sweet potatoes!) involves roasting a whole chicken, so I wanted to preface it by teaching you exactly how to carve your perfectly cooked bird.
I promise, roasting and carving a chicken is so much easier than you might think. Once you master it, you’ll have a ridiculously impressive cooking skill in your back pocket that you can whip out and wow a crowd with anytime.
Just found out your in-laws are dropping by for dinner this weekend? Roast a chicken. Celebrating your partner’s big promotion at work? Roast a chicken. Want to meal prep a delicious lean protein for the week ahead? Roast a chicken. Want to make a random Wednesday night feel special? Roast a chicken!!!!
If you can’t wait until the new recipe drops to practice your skills, use this technique to make a store-bought rotisserie chicken look fancy, or cook one of these recipes from the archives:
one-pan coconut curry chicken with roasted vegetables and lime
tandoori-spiced chicken and potatoes with peanut chutney & crispy kale
poules frites from page 33 in WTC the book
Either way, be sure to tag me in the pics of your perfectly carved birds!
Today’s tutorial is sponsored by one of my very favorite kitchen brands that makes one of my most-used kitchen products: Epicurean! I’ve talked about my love for their paper composite cutting boards many times, and I know that many of you own and love them, too. They’re lightweight, durable, made of paper composite (not plastic), and — my favorite part — they’re dishwasher safe. Their cutting boards with a juice groove (aka the Gourmet Series and All-In-One Series) are an ideal work surface for carving chicken — or for slicing a juicy steak, pork tenderloin, tomato, watermelon, etc.
Here’s the board I’m carving on in the video, and here’s a handy little board I use daily to slice a single chicken breast or steak, to prep fruit for my kids, and more. But you truly cannot go wrong with any of their boards! I love them so much that I have a whole drawer devoted to Epicurean cutting boards of all sizes and series.
When carving a chicken, you want to use a big, sharp chef’s or santoku knife. Here’s the Victorinox wood-handled santoku that I am working with in the tutorial.
This carving technique works on any whole chicken, even if you just bought a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the store! If you’re using a store-bought rotisserie chicken and the skin got soggy on the drive home, pop it onto a parchment-lined sheet pan and throw it in the oven at 425°F for 10 minutes or so to crisp the skin up and bring it back to life.
I like to plate my carved chicken slices with lemon wedges and a few bunches of fresh herb sprigs — cilantro, thyme, parsley, rosemary, or whatever you have on hand.
Any questions after watching the tutorial?
