The Best Way to Truss a Chicken for Juicy Meat and Crispy Skin

Over a 48-hour period, I roasted a total of four chickens.

Was this because I require a large amount of protein to function?

No, I am a freelance writer whose only form of exercise is running.

Is it because Ilovechicken?

Im really more of a duck person.

Is it because I just had to know which trussing method would reign supreme in a two-day chicken-roasting battle?

Lets start by discussing the untrussed bird, as a baseline, before proceeding to the other three methods.

No Trussing Whatsoever

The whole point of trussing is to ensure even cooking.

(Or so the theory goes.)

Honestly, before this, I had never bothered with trussing, traditional or otherwise.

I cant claim that this produced the best roast chicken, though Ive never had any complaints.

But lets take a close look at the kind of roast chicken you get, no trussing involved.

(Again, this is the aim of trussing.)

Juiciness:According to my mouth, the leg and thigh meat were perfect.

(Though it was the driest of the four chickens, it still wasntthatdry.

It definitely wasnt, as Kenji predicted, cardboard.)

In spite of this hardship, I got the job done.

But what if you dont have any string?

(I didnt until I bought some for this article.)

If not for the string, I wouldnt have been able to tell them apart.

(Just to recap: this is the opposite of what trussing is supposed to achieve.)

Juiciness:Again, the dark meat on both birds tasted great.

Both lost slightly less liquid during cooking than the untrussed bird (around quarter cup).

Grant Crilly at ChefSteps is a trussing renegade.

The legs were good too, but not particularly better than any of the other chickens.

I was however, quite impressed with ChefSteps method of trussing.

If it’s possible for you to learn to truss, truss this way.