The Juiciest Baked Chicken You’ll Ever Eat – .89¢ Per Serving

This was hands-down the absolute moistest, most delicious baked chicken I’ve ever had. If you think baked chicken is always dry, allow me to convince you to try my way.

I baked this chicken with the same technique I used to bake our Thanksgiving Turkey a few months ago. As you can see, it works.

Preheat your oven to 425 . I started with a whole chicken I found on sale.

I used crushed red pepper, onion powder, cilantro and Chinese five spice, but feel free to use your favorite herbs and spices.

Add a few tablespoons of your favorite oil or butter (I used coconut oil) with your herbs, plus salt and pepper. If you’re not sure how much of each, I recommend roughly 1 part strong spices/herbs (Chinese five spice, crushed red pepper, etc.) to 2 parts mild herb/spice (onion powder, cilantro, etc.)

Stir it up.

At the base of the chicken, find where the skin starts separating from the meat.

Very carefully, use your fingers to separate the skin from the breast until you reach the neck area. Go slowly! Don’t poke holes in the skin.

Spoon the oil and herb mixture on top of the breasts. Use the skin to scrape it off of your spoon to cut down on the mess.

Gently flatten the oil/herb mixture all around the breasts.

Don’t forget to get the mixture on the legs!

Here’s an important step. Pat down the outside of the chicken with a towel or paper towel. You want it to be as dry as possible.

Here’s the trick: corn starch. Contrary to popular belief, which is to moisten the outside of the chicken, we’re working hard to keep the juices INSIDE the chicken. There’s enough fat on the outside of the bird to moisten the inside. Oil on the outside won’t moisten it–sealing in the juices will!

Dust a thin layer of cornstarch around the outside of the chicken. Don’t forget the bottom and cracks and crevices.

You may start to wonder how on earth such a dry chicken could be incredibly moist. Trust me. Drier is better.

I used a cast iron skillet and it worked perfectly. If you don’t have one, try finding a shallow baking dish that’s also tall enough to contain juices when they come out. Don’t use a deep baking dish or a cookie sheet. Something in between. 

This is a really great opportunity to use a probe thermometer, my new favorite gadget. If you don’t have a probe thermometer, use a regular meat thermometer. If you don’t have one of those, buy one! Seriously. The reason we use a thermometer is because I can tell you to cook it for 45 minutes, but if your chicken is larger or smaller than the one I’m using, the cooking time is going to fluctuate greatly.

Cook until the internal temperature reaches 160 in the oven and it will continue cooking to 165 once you take it out.

One more thing: you may want to cover the wing tips with foil so they don’t burn.

When it gets out of the oven, spoon the juices from the bottom of the pan over top of the bird several times.

My roommates were lingering in the kitchen as I pulled this out, so I cut off one of the breasts and divvied it up among us. This is what followed:

“OOOOH MYYYYYY GOOOOOSH!!!!!”

“What is happening!?”

“HOW CAN THIS BE SO GOOD!?”

“MMMMMMMMM!”

Enjoy!