Trussing A Chicken

One of my favorite things to do is to get lost in a cookbook.  As such, my close friends and family know that a great Christmas, Birthday or any occasion gift for me is a cookbook.  Lucky me, I received a few for Christmas and as I flipped through one over the weekend, I learned about trussing a chicken.

I found an extremely simple recipe, calling for nothing other than a chicken, salt and pepper.  It crossed my mind to not bother trussing as I thought, 'how much of a difference can it really make?"  Well- a LOT!!!

I'm normally a chicken-breast-meat-only (no dark meat or skin) type of person but this bird was so amazingly moist, decadent and tasty that it was a no-holds-barred type of a meal!

-Heat your oven to 450.

-Rinse and dry the bird thoroughly.

-Salt and pepper the cavity.

-Tuck the wings in and use a 3' piece of kitchen twine to truss the bird  (really- all you do is place the string under the bird's back, draw it together in the front at the bottom of the breast and then draw the drumsticks together and tie tightly), then sprinkle with a generous amount of kosher salt.

-Bake for an hour.

That's it.  No basting, no checking to see if it's done… let it sit outside the oven afterward and get ready to enjoy a bird so tasty you'll want to eat it with your hands and no utensils!   (Do keep in mind that the internal temp should reach 160 F from a food-safety standpoint…)

Sometimes the simplest things are the tastiest!