Salt-Roasted Chicken

 There has been much said about the benefits of salt roasting meat but the most important thing is that it is supposed to make meat tender. I was more inclined to believe that it would make your meat taste like salt-lick... but curiosity got the best of me and I gave it a try. 

Was the meat tender??? Yes. However we did find that in order to check the temperature, of the meat, we ended up releasing a bunch of the juices. Not sure exactly how you would get around that but it didn't make much of a difference. The method does indeed work, but be aware that the technique is messy and tedious. I had a heck of a time getting my salt/egg mixture to be thick enough to stick on the chicken. Make sure your chicken is dried off before adding the salt pack around it, that helps tremendously! 

For this recipe you need:

1 3-4 pound chicken

9 cups of kosher salt (most recipes I looked at used a less amount but I found it to be too thin in texture)

12 large egg whites ( I read about dry salt packs an moist salt packs and went with the moist one)

two sprigs each of Marjoram, Tarragon, and flat leaf parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Rinse and dry chicken off completely. Stuff herbs inside of chicken cavity. 

In a large bowl, mix together salt and egg whites and knead for about four minutes

Place salt and egg whites in a large bowl. Pack 1/3 of salt mixture onto bottom of pan. Place chicken on top and pack the remaining salt mixture over and around chicken to completely enclose it.

Roast the chicken until a thermometer registers 165° when inserted through the salt crust into the thickest part of the thigh, this was about 75 minutes for me. Let chicken rest for 10 minutes. Crack salt with the back of a knife or wooden spoon. Remove salt and skin from chicken; Carve and serve.