Roasted Salt Crusted Chicken Recipe
This is the easiest, most delicious way to roast a chicken. And the result is unbelievably scrumptious.
Servings: 5 to 6
Calories: 468kcal
Equipment
- large Dutch oven or large, heavy-bottomed pot
- meat thermometer instant-read
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken approximately 5 pounds
- 4 cups kosher salt
Instructions
- Set the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Prep the chicken. Remove the insides of the chicken, rinse it lightly inside and out, pat dry with paper towels, and then truss it with butcher twine. Set aside.
- Heat the salt. Pour the salt into a large, heavy-bottomed pot and place it over medium-high heat. Stir frequently and "cook" the salt until it's very hot to the touch, about 5 minutes. (The pot should be large enough to fit the chicken with a couple of inches around it.)
- Cover the chicken with salt. Pour or scoop out all but a few inches of the hot salt into a bowl and set aside. Move the salt around so one side is a bit higher than the other. Gently place the chicken on the salt, breast side down on the lower half of the salt. Add the remaining salt to the chicken, covering it as thoroughly as possible.
- Roast. Without a lid, place the salt-covered chicken in the preheated 400°F oven and roast until the internal temperature is 155°F to 160°F. (You can gently stick the thermometer directly through the salt crust.) The final internal temperature will be about 165°F, as the chicken will continue to cook for several minutes outside of the oven. The juices should run clear and the legs should move easily when it’s done. Cooking times might vary, but it should take about 1 hour.
- Rest. Remove the chicken from the oven and use a piece of crumpled foil to place under the chicken, opposite the breast side, to ensure the juices are flowing down into the breasts. Loosely cover the chicken with foil to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving.
- Crack and carve. When you're ready to carve, simply crack the salt off the chicken and cut! The skin will easily just slide off. This is an exciting part -- you're unveiling your masterpiece!
Notes
Salt: use kosher salt, not table salt. Its large crystals form a crust that's easy to crack off.
Chicken size: a whole chicken of about 5 pounds takes about 1 hour. Smaller or larger chickens will cook faster or slower, so use a thermometer.
Skip the skin: the skin will be very salty, so remove it before eating. The meat itself won't taste salty.
Leftovers: it's delicious in sandwiches, quesadillas, tacos, lettuce wraps, salads, and pasta or quinoa dishes.
Sodium: the sodium below is likely overestimated, since most of the salt crust is discarded.
Nutritional information is automatically calculated, so it should only be used as an estimate.
Nutrition
Calories: 468kcal | Protein: 40g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 163mg | Sodium: 2943mg | Potassium: 412mg | Vitamin A: 305IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 2mg