The best crispy-skin oven-baked chicken I have ever had.

[forgotmylogin]

I am just over a month into the keto diet and learning new recipes, and I have to share this technique that some people not even eating low-carb may enjoy - crispy skin chicken thighs or wings that you would swear were deep-fried, but they are baked in the oven, and it's pretty simple with very little mess.

You need 4-5 nice size bone-in thighs with skin or about 10 wings. Make sure your chicken is as dry as possible and preferably room temperature. Use paper towels to dry the meat thoroughly. I like to also peel up the thigh skin a bit but leave it attached so the seasoning can get underneath it. If you're using wings, cut apart the flats and the drumettes and discard the wing tips unless you like them.

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Line a baking sheet with foil and set a metal rack in it that will elevate the chicken above the drippings. You could possibly do it without a rack, but the rack will give best results. Spray the rack with cooking spray. (I like to do this over the sink with the cookie sheet to catch the spray so it doesn't go all over the counter.) The spray and the foil make for easy cleanup.

In a big plastic bowl with a lid, add 2 tablespoons of baking powder and then some salt and pepper to taste and 1 teaspoon of premade chicken seasoning, or your favorite combination of dry seasonings - garlic powder, onion powder, bbq dry rub, Italian herbs, a dash of cayenne, lemon pepper, cinnamon - all work well and provide tasty results. Blend together by gently shaking, or with a dry fork.

Throw all your chicken in the bowl, put the lid on securely, and shake it vigorously over the sink to coat. All your baking powder and seasonings will probably disappear onto the chicken. If your chicken is wet it will make a mess. If you don't have a bowl, you can do this in a plastic bag but I find the bowl is easier and will take all the chicken at once and get the coating the most evenly distributed.

Arrange the chicken on the rack leaving a little space between the pieces and wrapping any loose thigh skin back into place. Bake on the middle rack at 250 for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, increase the oven temperature to 425. If possible, move the oven rack up one slot and then bake for another 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

You'll have succulent chicken thighs with a crispy coating containing nearly no carbs and no flour or gluten and it will be hard to resist having it for dinner every night!

Wings prepared in this fashion taste just like the ones from my local pub where their house specialty is dry-rub wings with cinnamon. You will swear they were fried. You can also toss them in your favorite buffalo or other wing sauce and have them with celery and blue cheese or ranch dressing.

Link to my source for the recipe if you want to print it without my variations and in normal format!
https://jenniferbanz.com/crispy-chicken-thighs

[KT2000]

1. thanks for this

I will try it!

[LisaM]

2. Yum!

Lately, I have been mixing my dry ingredients with a wisk, it works well, especially for baking.

[Major Nikon]

3. There's a bit of food science as to why this technique works

If you learn the why, then it helps with the preparation of other types of poultry as well.

Skin for pretty much all culinary meats is composed of mostly fat and fat is mostly water. If you just throw the poultry into a scorching hot oven what you wind up with is burned skin and a raw interior. By cooking at a lower temperature initially what you are doing is preheating the inside while rendering the fat on the outside and preparing it for a quick crisp before it burns.

[forgotmylogin]

4. I'm all for that!

Baking powder seems to have a magic effect also; perhaps the effervescence (?) encourages air bubbles in the skin to crisp it? I always thought flour and salt was the only way. I ended up with salty, chewy skin.

The pre-bake at a low temp is also brilliant. I know people who are terrified to make roast chicken specifically because of the fear the inside won't get done. I've seen people bake high first then lower the temperature, but then there's a risk of the meat drying out. This method solves that!

I wonder if this could be applied to a larger bird like a turkey? Maybe baste with a baking-powder solution and let it slow-cook at 200 overnight in the oven, then turn it up for an hour or two before Thanksgiving dinner?

[Major Nikon]

5. What you describe is almost exactly how I prepare turkey

I put it in the smoker at around 200F and let it smoke until the internal temperature gets to around 150F. Then I bring it inside and let it rest until the internal temperature stabilizes and then into the oven it goes at full whack to crisp up the skin.

I'm not sure you could do this overnight as it typically only takes a few hours to cook a turkey this way, but I never do much over a 14lb bird. I do know people who will smoke the turkey the day before, refrigerate, and then use the oven to bring it up to serving temperature.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

9. You don't happen to know how to prevent the

Cooked skin from "separating" from the meat do you? Going to be in a BBQ cook-off and that is a giant no-no. Betting there's a scientific explanation that you would know MN

[Major Nikon]

10. Carving method is all I can suggest

The way I carve the turkey breast is to first remove each breast half from the bird before slicing by making a cut along the breastbone and another from underneath. Then I cut the slices against the grain after each half has been removed. The dark meat is a bit trickier, but you can debone the thigh before slicing. A very sharp and relatively long knife does a much better job.

This seems to work the best for me, but I don't do BBQ competitions so I'm not particularly worried about it.

[Vinca]

6. That sounds good. I'll have to try it.

[PennyK]

7. Thanks!

I do mine a simpler way, though.
Chicken parts in a foil-covered pan over a bay leaf or two. Sprinkle with Salt, pepper, oregano, poultry seasoning, paprika, yada yada. Cover pan tightly with foil and roast at 350 for an hour.
Remove from oven and baste the chicken with the pan juices. Return to oven, uncovered this time, and roast for another hour. The skin will be crisp and the chicken will fall apart in your mouth.
I also cook veggies with this...carrots, onion, red peppers. We love it!

[hermetic]

8. Sounds good

Will try.