Step 1 – Two to three hours prior to cooking, rinse the chicken quarters under cold water and pat-dry thoroughly with paper towel. Season each piece with salt and pepper on both sides and roll in flour. Set aside, at room temperature.
Poultry at room temperature for three hours? Even with a teaspoon of salt (and a roll in flour), that seems food-unsafe.
Yeah, I would put them in the fridge, due to not being a fan of salmonella. Maybe take them out about a half hour before cooking.
Plus, no matter how dry you pat them, the flour will turn to nasty goop, fridge or no fridge.
Glancing at the recipe, they heavily emphasize the crispy skin. I’m guessing that’s why they want it in the open, to allow best drying.
IMHO, and borrowing from Alton Brown, I’d keep it in the fridge (until maybe 30 minutes before as suggested by @Manduck) with a battery powered fan blowing over the surface for the good drying without too much time in the danger zone.
Yes, I’m sure if you sourced your chicken safely you could go two hours (IIRC that’s the maximum normally allowed for food safety if the temps are below 90), and three probably wouldn’t be a big risk, but I personally wouldn’t.
That recipe lost me at “rinse chicken”. Stupid thing to do.
I don’t think salmonella are that bad if you cook your chicken through. Adding the times in the recipe the chicken is in the pan for over one hour, most of the time with a lid on. How they expect that to be crispy is what I don’t understand.
Probably a stupid thing to do with a fresh-killed farm bird.
But AFAIK the chicken you find in a grocery store has been sprayed with a weak bleach solution at some point. “To enhance freshness”. Like rinsing your fruits and veggies, rinsing your chicken gets (some of) the unwelcome and not so great tasting chemicals off it.
You know, bacteria growth is very temperature dependant. If 2 hours is okay at almost 90°F, I’m sure 3 hours is fine in most kitchens. Commercial kitchens are very warm. Mine is typically 70°-73°, depending on the season. Maybe 75° if the oven has been on (which it probably hasn’t, if i haven’t started cooking the chicken, yet.)
I like to leave my Thanksgiving turkey out overnight between 50°F and 60°F so it cooks faster and doesn’t dry out. (My garage is usually that temp in the winter, but i check with a thermometer. If it’s not, i turn the basement fridge to it’s warmest setting.) I cook it to a safe temperature, but also, the turkey still smells and feels fresh in the morning. None of the off odor or sliminess that you sometimes find on a piece of chicken “reduced for quick sale”.
(This is a hack i discovered when i lived in a small apartment and literally couldn’t fit everything in the fridge. I roasted the best turkey anyone in my family had ever had. It was moist and juicy, not dry. Ever since, i have suspected that most of the benefit people get from brining their turkey is that it forces them to really and truly defrost the bird, all the way through.)
Using a small fan to speed drying in the fridge is a clever idea; never tried that. I have kept meat open in the fridge to dry the surface for several hours many a time, on a wire rack to expose it to air on all sides. Good for steaks too; helps to get a great sear on the grill.
ETA: duh, on a reread I think you meant to use a fan after removing the meat from the fridge. Still, rigging up a small fan in the fridge is the kind of MacGyvering I would certainly give the ol’ college try to.
No, you were right the first time - he’s used a USB charged fan in the fridge frequently, here’s a link to his instagram showing it:
I think I’d just salt them 8-12 hours beforehand and leave them uncovered in the fridge until ready to cook. Then take them out, dredge in flour and pepper, and continue the recipe. I wouldn’t rinse either.
Oh, certainly, I wouldn’t want to use that much time for the cited recipe! I was trying to figure out the writer’s intent for the 2-3 hours dry brining, and assuming it was in part for extra crispy skin - which comes in part from dryness.
More sharing the technique with @solost, and wanting to correct the confusion from my earlier post.
Sadly, these days I’m working on cutting my saturated fats, so crispy skin is a rare treat for me.
I hate getting old(er).
I think if I was making it for myself, I might try leaving the chicken out at room temperature. If it ends up going badly, it’s just me who gets affected. But I’d be a lot more cautious and keep it in the fridge if I was making it for guests. Even if it’s tastier by being left out, it wouldn’t be worth the risk if my guests ended up getting sick. And even if they didn’t get sick, most guests would feel uneasy if they found out the chicken was left out that long.
I’m very careful about cooking the meat to pasteurization. I use two oven thermometers, and then check with a thermopen. I’m also extremely careful about cross contamination. The chicken doesn’t get very warm, because it’s large. And the surface (which may have gotten warm) is cooked very hot for a long time.
(I didn’t leave tonight’s chicken in the counter because i was too lazy, not because of safety concerns. But this reminds me i should start it soon.)