Citrus Glazed Roast Chicken Recipe - Mom On Timeout (2024)

FAQs

How long can you marinate chicken in lemon juice? ›

Marinate the chicken for a minimum of 4 hours to allow the acid to tenderize the chicken and the flavors to penetrate the meat. On the long end, you can safely leave the marinated chicken in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, covered or sealed in the bag, before cooking.

If you can, leave at least one hour for the seasoned chicken to rest in the refrigerator, uncovered, before it's time to cook. Longer is even better, up to 24 hours. The result is noticeably crispier skin.

Above all, however, a roast chicken needs to be juicy. There are many ways to achieve this, but one of the best is to flip over your poultry. While it is more common to turn over a duck during roasting to render the fat out of the breast meat, flipping a chicken does something a little different.

Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the bird to a serving dish to rest, making sure you hold the chicken over the roasting dish until the juices have run out and back into the tin, and cover with a piece of foil and a couple of tea-towels to keep warm.

Important: If your marinade is full of fresh citrus or vinegar, like the one in this chicken skewers recipe, keep the marinating time below an hour for optimal results. Poultry marinated in citrus, like lemon or lime juices, or vinegars can turn mushy and stringy if left to soak for too long.

Marinades that use acidic components, such as lemon juice, should only be used for 2-3 hours, no more than 3 hours. Here's why: Lemon juice helps to tenderize meat, but when left for too long, it will break down the proteins too much, making the meat tough and rubbery… sometimes even mushy.

You can roast or bake anywhere between 325 and 450 degrees F. When roasting a whole chicken, a nice rule of them is to start at 400 to 425 degrees F and then turn the oven down to 350 after 15 minutes and cook until the internal temp of the chicken is 165 – 175 degrees F on an instant read thermometer.

If you skip resting, you will lose more flavorful juices when the meat is cut. The internal temperature of the meat will always continue to rise a little during the resting period, so you should remove your meat from the oven or grill prior to reaching its target doneness temperature.

You have two options for roasting your chicken: low and slow or hot and fast. To make the right decision, you first have to decide what type of chicken you're craving. For sticky, rotisserie-style skin with fall-apart meat, cook it at a low temperature for hours.

Is it better to roast a chicken covered or uncovered? ›

If you want your chicken to be truly roasted with crisp, golden-brown skin, it needs to spend time in the oven uncovered. If you find that some parts of the skin are browning more rapidly than others, you can loosely tent the browner parts with foil to allow the rest of the skin to catch up.

Incorrect temperature and cooking time are the main culprits behind why your chicken gets dry when you cook it. The key to cooking chicken without drying it out is finding the sweet spot between temperature and cooking time.

USDA recommends using cooked chicken within three to four days, kept refrigerated (40°F or less). Refrigeration slows but does not stop bacterial growth. USDA recommends using cooked leftovers within three to four days.

It is not necessary to let chicken soak in vinegar and lemon juice before cooking, but doing so can impart certain flavors and potentially help tenderize the meat.

For best results, meat should be marinated for 4-6 hours. Tender cuts of meat can be marinated for a shorter period of time. Always discard the marinade when you remove the meat for grilling or braaiing. Unused marinade that is used at a later stage may cause food poisoning.

We suggest exploring options such as soaking meat in a marinade made with lemon, lime juice, or vinegar. However, don't leave your meat in lime or lemon juice for too long, or else it'll get too soft. Anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour is a good time frame for acidic marinades.

The maximum recommended time chicken can sit in the fridge in a marinade is 2 days; after that, the protein begins to break down with the acids in the marinade, and your chicken can go bad.