How To Truss a Chicken
Technique covering how to truss a chicken. This skill will improve the quality of your chicken by promoting even cooking and browning.
Suggested Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Chicken Patted Dry
Instructions
Step 1: Chicken Preparation
- Salt & pepper the inside of the chicken before trussing. You will also want to add any ingredients to the chicken cavern now. Items like onion, garlic, lemon, thyme, rosemary...
- Cut a piece of trussing string. Make sure it is long enough, 2 ½ to 3 ft will work.
Step 2: Trussing The Chicken
- Lay the rinsed and patted dry chicken in front of you with the legs pointed at you
- Place the trussing string under the chicken, by the wings
- Loop the trussing string over the top of the wings to the front of the chicken, then back under to complete the loop
- Next, take the trussing string and come over the top of the legs
- Now loop back under the legs and back to the top of the legs.
- The trussing string is now at the backside of the chicken
- Tie a chefs knot, or any knot that works ( How to tie a chefs knot is in the video)
- Secure tightly, the chicken will shape up and look picture perfect for your roasts
- Tie the legs together with string if desired
Video
Notes
- Trussing creates and allows more of the chicken skin to be exposed to the heat while cooking. This will give you the best presentation and more even browned skin.
- Golden browned chicken skin requires that the chicken be patted very dry before cooking. Moisture on the skin will lead to steaming, not browning.
- You can truss a turkey with the same method.
- Adding items like lemons or onion into the chicken cavity, please do before trussing, or the items will not fit in the opening after tightening the trussing string.