How to get crispy roast chicken skin

Crispy chicken skin comes down to getting as much moisture out of the skin as possible before it hits the oven — everything else, from salt to baking powder, is in service of that one goal. Skip the drying step and no amount of oven temperature will make up for it.

How to get crispy roast chicken skin

Dry the skin thoroughly, season it, and let it sit uncovered in the fridge before roasting. Moisture is the enemy of crisping: wet skin steams in the oven before it has a chance to render and brown, so patting it dry with kitchen paper and then leaving it exposed to fridge air — uncovered, on a rack if you have one — pulls out more moisture than drying alone.

Do you need to dry the skin first?

Yes, and it's worth doing twice — once with kitchen paper straight after buying or brining, and again by air-drying in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. An uncovered chicken in the fridge loses surface moisture continuously, which is exactly what patting dry only does for a moment. If you're short on time, even 30 minutes uncovered before roasting is better than going straight from a wet surface into the oven.

What temperature crisps skin best?

A hot oven, generally 200°C (400°F) or above, browns and crisps skin faster than a moderate one, because higher heat renders the fat and drives off surface moisture quickly rather than giving it time to steam the skin from underneath. Starting hot and finishing at a slightly lower temperature — hot enough to crisp the skin, cooler for long enough to cook the meat through without burning the outside — is a common compromise for a whole bird, where the skin crisps faster than the inside cooks.

Does baking powder help?

Yes — baking powder mixed into the salt rub raises the skin's surface pH, which breaks down proteins faster and speeds up browning, and the reaction between baking powder and the chicken's own moisture also produces small gas bubbles that expand the skin's surface area for extra crunch. Kitchen testers at America's Test Kitchen found a mix of roughly one part baking powder to three or four parts kosher salt, rubbed onto the skin and left to sit for several hours (up to overnight for a whole bird), gave a noticeably crisper result than salt alone.

Baking soda is not a substitute here, even though it sounds similar: the same testing found it left a distinct metallic, bitter taste on the skin. Baking powder — which already contains a mild acid to balance the alkalinity — is the one that works without the off-flavour.

Does this work for chicken thighs too?

Yes — the same drying, salting and hot-oven logic applies to individual pieces, and thighs often crisp more reliably than a whole bird because more skin surface is directly exposed to the oven's heat rather than tucked against a cavity or another piece. If you're cooking chicken thighs specifically, pat them dry, season the skin side, and roast skin-side up so rendering fat doesn't have anywhere to pool and re-soften it.

For a full roast dinner built around this idea rather than just the skin, 3 chicken dinners that don't taste the same covers a wider range of what to do with the rest of the bird.

What do you do with leftover crispy skin?

Keep it, and use it as a garnish rather than throwing it away with the carcass. Leftover roast chicken skin crisped up separately on bread makes a crostini topping for a soup made from the same bird's carcass and drippings — a way to get a second crispy-skin moment out of one roast instead of one.

The short version

Crispy skin is a drying problem before it's a heat problem: pat it dry, let it air-dry uncovered in the fridge if you have the time, season with salt or a salt-and-baking-powder mix, and roast at a hot temperature. Baking powder speeds browning and adds texture; baking soda leaves a bitter, metallic taste and isn't a substitute.

Sources

• America's Test Kitchen: baking powder, the secret weapon for crispy chicken skin