Basting (French arroser) is the practice of brushing or drizzling pan juices over meat or poultry as it cooks. Many roasted chicken or turkey recipes call for basting, as it’s a good way to add some more flavor to the surface of the skin. Many home cooks believe that basting makes for a crispier skin. Is this true? Does basting make chicken or turkey skin more crispy?
Unfortunately, no. Contrary to popular belief, basting a roasted bird with pan drippings will not make the skin crispier. In fact, the opposite is true. Adding moisture to the skin will make it harder for it to crisp up. When you baste with pan drippings, you aren’t only basting with the fat from the roasting bird, but also water being given off during the cooking.
Chicken or Turkey Bastes Itself
As a chicken or turkey cooks, fat naturally renders out of the skin and coats it. This fat helps crisp up the skin. When you pour pan drippings over it, you are washing fat off the surface of the skin as much as depositing it. At the same time, you are adding moisture, which slows down the crisping process.
About the only way to help the skin become more crispy is to baste it with pure butter or another fat. This risks burning the butter and causing smoke. You can also end up with burnt butter in your roasting pan and extremely fatty pan drippings, assuming you have any.
Basting Adds Very Little Flavor
And, while basting the surface of chicken or turkey skin may deposit some salt and other flavorings on the surface of the skin, it will not contribute much to the overall flavor. The skin acts as a barrier, and none of these seasonings will effectively penetrate. So, while many cooks are firm believers in basting, much of their effort is wasted.
Basting Risks Burns and Cools Down the Oven
Continually opening the oven door, pulling out the rack, and spooning, brushing, or using a bulb baster to drizzle hot pan juices over a roasting bird can cause you to get a serious burn. It also cools down the oven, which is only going to retard the skin from becoming crispy, not to mention the entire cooking process. Basting a bird is a lot of trouble that only messes up your roasted poultry.
Baste With Butter At the End of Cooking, Or Not At All
If you want a nicely rendered and crispy skin, season the skin well before baking. If you want to coat it with butter, use clarified butter. You can use regular butter and seasonings under the skin, if you’d like. As for basting with extra butter, wait for the last 15 to 20 minutes of baking time and brush a moderate amount of butter over the skin to help it crisp up and give it a more buttery flavor. Using a lot of butter, though, during roasting, will result in the butter potentially burning during cooking.
Some cooks go the extra step of removing the roasted bird from the roasting pan just prior to the last 15 to 20 minutes of cooking and placing it in other pan. They then baste with the pan drippings or with butter several times while finishing the cooking. This is yet another, even more troublesome way to slow down the cooking and achieve little of import.
To Baste Or Not To Baste Roasted Poultry
I’d personally recommend no basting. If you want a crispy skin, the best thing to do is to leave your chicken alone as it bakes. All the flavorings should be added during the preparation. I suspect more people would roast a whole chicken at home if they didn’t think they had to baste every 20 to 30 minutes.
A Great Finisher for Steaks or Burgers
Basting with butter, on the other hand, is a good finisher for steaks or burgers cooked on the stove-top. This helps give the steak or burger a nice crust and infuses the surface with any aromatic ingredients added along with the butter, like garlic and thyme.
