A whole bird is where most Friday nights start. Here's how to get it right.
Pick your bird
- Broiler — the everyday roaster. Tender, quick, and the bird most Shabbos tables are built on.
- Pullet (stewing hen) — older and firmer, with far more flavour. Made for the soup pot, not the roasting pan.
- Capon — bigger and richer, with more white meat. For when the table runs long.
- Cornish hen — one bird, one plate. Handsome on a Yom Tov setting.
- Butterfly — flattened, so it roasts in half the time with crisp skin edge to edge.
Whole, quartered or eighths
Whole roasts best and carves at the table. Quarters give everyone a piece with skin on it. Eighths cook fastest and stretch furthest — the same bird, three different dinners.
The roast
Dry the skin first; a dry bird browns, a wet one steams. 425°F for the first twenty minutes to set the skin, then down to 375°F for the rest — figure about twenty minutes a pound. The thigh should read 165°F and the juices should run clear.
Under the skin, not on it
Loosen the skin over the breast and work the seasoning underneath — garlic, paprika, a little oil. It flavours the meat instead of scorching on the surface.
Rest, then carve
Ten minutes before you touch it. Legs first, then take each breast off the bone whole and slice it across. Keep the frame — that's the beginning of your next soup.