Last weekend I cooked a chicken using principles from the Zuni method. I bought the smallest Springer Mountain chicken I could find. On Friday I dried and salted the chicken thoroughly, inside and out. It air chilled on a rack in my fridge until Sunday. The skin looked crazy after two days, pretty much translucent. The salt is mostly absorbed by the chicken so there isn’t much to brush off when ready to cook.
The chicken was brought up closer to room temperature, then dried again, then I seared it in cast iron and roasted it at 475F, flipping it twice as instructed.
The skin was fantastically crispy and extremely taut.
While the chicken rested on a plate I drained off the fat and deglazed the chicken skin bits with water, than again with white wine, then I poured in the chicken juice that had collected on the plate, reduced slightly, and finished the pan sauce with a tablespoon of butter.
It was awesome. Probably a little too salty, I think 48 hours with the amount of salt I used for the dry brine was too much time. Really, really good chicken skin though.
