Most people shy away from roasting whole chicken because it simply takes too long to cook. For a medium-sized chicken, you are looking at anywhere between an hour and a half and two hours of cooking. But what if we told you that there is a way to get a whole roasted chicken ready in under 30 minutes?
The speedy process of roasting a whole chicken was developed by Seattle-based chef Ned Baldwin. In his cookbook How to Dress An Egg, Baldwin shared a recipe that he uses in his restaurant and that allows him to cook a roasted chicken in just 18 minutes if followed precisely. But even if you cut some corners, you would be able to get it done in half an hour.
The first step in the recipe is to use a smaller chicken. Between three pounds and four pounds should be ideal. Then, you need to debone it as much as you can. The most important thing is to remove the backbone because you will be roasting the chicken flat. If you also get rid of breast bones and rib bones, you will speed up the cooking process more.
The next step is to preheat the oven to 475F and keep that temperature for half an hour before inserting the chicken. Finally, you will need to lay the chicken flat on a skillet and place the skillet on an oven floor. This will help cook off the moisture and make your chicken crispy as a bonus.
Baldwin also recommends generously salting the chicken. This doesn’t speed up the process but helps make it tastier, according to the chef.
