Tip: Finishing Undercooked Chicken Breasts in the Oven

If there's a hang-up with roast chicken, it's usually that the breast meat gets too dry before the whole bird is finished cooking. But we often have the opposite problem, pulling the chicken out when the meat is still a tiny but underdone. We actually think this works out well, and we'll tell you why...

We once made a Cook's Illustrated lemon chicken that called for cutting up the finished roast chicken and placing the breasts, wings, and thighs back into the accumulated juices, skin side up, and returning the pan to the oven. We thought about that last night when our roast chicken was too pink.

The beauty of it is that the meat is sitting in a shallow pool of drippings, which keep it moist while it finishes cooking, and the skin continues to crisp up. Ours was in the oven for less than five more minutes before we took it out and plated it.

Of course, if you are adept at getting your chicken to just the right temperature, that works, too. But if you err on the side of undercooked, this is a great way to finish the chicken while adding a little more juice and flavor to the meat. Even if your chicken is well cooked, this step will get the skin extra crispy without drying out the meat.

Has anyone else tried this technique?

Related: From the Files: Roast Chicken!

(Image: Elizabeth Passarella)

Comments (5)

OK, technical questions...

Normally chicken must rest before carving. Do you need to rest the chicken before you put it back in the oven?

Also, it seems like it would be difficult to cut up a chicken that is still so hot. Any tips?

To avoid the juice loss issue of carving the chicken while very hot, Julia Child's method was to separate the breast from the back and legs and roast the pieces separately. The full recipe is in her The Way to Cook.

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@kljmlace: you wouldn't need to let the chicken rest before you put it back into the oven, though letting it rest for a few minutes after it comes out a final time will help it some. A good way to handle carving up a really hot chicken (or, actually a chicken of any temperature whether cooked or not) is to use poultry sheers or really good kitchen scissors. I use Oxo Good Grip's separable scissors which come apart so they can be seriously cleaned. Using the sheers let's you cut through the chicken without having to really grab onto it as much or as long as using a knife.

My favorite way to make chicken is to use my old iron skillet, brown the chicken several minutes each side, and then slide the whole thing into a 350 degree oven with a meat thermometer. It comes out very juicy and it's easy to do, just like you suggest.