Resting A Roasting Bird

[Gregg]

Caught a few minutes of a Gordon Ramsey show the other night. He was roasting a turkey. What caught my ear was when he said you should rest it for as long as you roasted it. His was a fairly large bird (just a guess at 16 or 18 lbs.). If the cooking time was 4 - 4.5 hours then presumably he rested it that long as well. Unfortunately I didn't have a DVR on that TV so couldn't rewind to get specifics. Does anyone here rest a bird for that long? We've always let one set for 45 minutes or so to reabsorb juices and cool enough to comfortably handle, but I've never thought about resting it for multiple hours. Frankly I'd be worried about bacteria. Any thoughts?

[weinoo]

Yes - resting it for 4 hours sounds ridiculous. 30, 45 or 60 minutes just fine, and probably all you need.

[Shalmanese]

Time is only an indirect measure, it's more reliable to use temperature. Rest it until it drops 5F from it's peak temperature from a probe thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh or breast.

[dcarch]

It depends on many things.

Suppose you roast one in an oven for 1 1/2 housrs, shut off the oven, and let the bird inside the oven rest for 1 1/2 hours, that can make a lot of sense.

dcarch

[lesliec]

I tried the Gordon technique Christmas before last. The turkey was cold!

[teapot]

There is a chef in Seattle who is known for roasting the most delicious roast chicken at his two French bistros. He and I chatted about how he prepared it and I asked him how long he rested the bird after roasting. He said that poultry, unlike other meats, does not benefit from resting --indeed, resting just makes the skin less crispy.

So is he right? Is resting a myth when it comes to poultry??

[KingLear]

Regarding the crispy skin note - just tonight I did a roast chicken, a la Ad Hoc at Home style. As soon as I removed the bird from the oven, I broke off a bit of skin and savored its wonderful crispness. As I thought back to all the birds before and how the skin got flabby while resting (I'm speaking poultry here), I sacrificed my fingertips and, with the help of a small chef's knife, removed all the skin and laid it flat, in a single layer, on a plate. It cooled very quickly, but remained crispy for ages - well at least until my wife and I finished it off after the meal. As I said to her - room temp/crispy skin is wayyy better than hot/flabby skin any day (still talking poultry).

I let the skinless bird rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes - beautifully moist and still steaming.

Edited January 24, 2012 by KingLear (log)

[Mjx]

There is a chef in Seattle who is known for roasting the most delicious roast chicken at his two French bistros. He and I chatted about how he prepared it and I asked him how long he rested the bird after roasting. He said that poultry, unlike other meats, does not benefit from resting --indeed, resting just makes the skin less crispy.

So is he right? Is resting a myth when it comes to poultry??

I remember reading something similar, but can't remember where (McGee? CI?); I believe it was a question of the thickness (thinness, actually) of the meat, compared to even a small roast, and that a brief (5 min.) or not rest is the way to go.

Although I'd imagine that the fact that roast birds are fully cooked (as opposed to rare, etc.) would also have something to do with this.

[Gregg]

We roasted bone-in chicken breasts the other night. We dove in right when they came out of the oven because we were in a hurry to get somewhere. The skin was wonderfully crisp and the meat was moist, but there was some loss of juice onto the plate right after cutting. I can't help but feel that at least a short resting period is beneficial. Like Shalmanese said, letting it come a few degrees off the high makes sense. As a purely practical matter it always takes me a few minutes after the bird comes out to get the side dishes coordinated so its going to get a rest anyway.

[piracer]

Perhaps the thickness thing does come to play when its something as big as a Turkey. I have to say, I probably unintentionally rest a roast chicken for 10-15 mins whilst people are getting to the table and settling down etc. But I think what Ramsay was trying to say was you NEED to let a bird like Turkey rest if you really want the rest of the meat to be somewhat juicy. Honestly crispy skin on Turkey is a myth for me - I've never had it. And he did say in that show that because of your piping hot gravy, it's "ok" to have the turkey not piping hot.