How to Make the Crispiest, Juiciest Chicken with Mandy Lee | At Home With Us
How to Make the Crispiest, Juiciest Chicken with Mandy Lee
## Main Points- Mandy Lee demonstrates how to make the crispiest, juiciest chicken using a unique skillet method—not roasting.
- The secret is to flatten the chicken completely, turning it from a 3D object into a 2D “sheet” for even cooking and maximum skin-to-pan contact.
- Drying the chicken skin thoroughly (ideally in the fridge for 2–6 hours) is crucial for crispiness.
- The chicken is seasoned with sea salt and white pepper, then cooked skin-side down in a cold, nonstick skillet.
- The process renders the chicken’s fat, essentially frying it in its own juices for a super crispy skin and juicy meat—even the breast stays moist.
- Aromatics like garlic and thyme are added near the end for extra flavor.
- The result is a chicken that’s crispier and juicier than any roast chicken.
Recipe: Crispiest, Juiciest Skillet Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (about 3 lbs)
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper (black pepper is fine, but white is preferred)
- Optional: Fresh thyme, garlic cloves
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Prep the Chicken
- Remove the wishbone and wingtips.
- Use kitchen shears to split the breast open and disconnect all joints, flattening the bird as much as possible. Remove the pelvic bone if desired.
- Ensure every inch of skin can touch the skillet.
- Season
- Lay the chicken meat-side up. Sprinkle half the salt and pepper evenly over the meat.
- Flip and season the skin side with the remaining salt and pepper. Spread the chicken as flat as possible.
- Dry the Skin
- Place the chicken uncovered in the fridge for 2–6 hours (minimum 1 hour if short on time). This step is key for crispy skin.
- If moisture remains, pat the skin dry with paper towels before cooking.
- Cook
- Use a large nonstick skillet (at least 30 cm/12 inches).
- Place the chicken skin-side down in a cold skillet. Spread it out flat.
- Cook over medium-low heat. Partially cover with a lid to prevent splatters, but don’t trap steam.
- Let the chicken cook undisturbed for about 30 minutes, until the skin is deeply golden and crisp.
- Add crushed garlic and thyme to the rendered fat near the end for flavor.
- Finish
- Flip the chicken and cook meat-side down for 2 more minutes to finish.
- Rest briefly, then carve and serve. The skin should be shatteringly crisp, and the meat juicy—even the breast.
This method is all about maximizing surface area, patience, and letting the chicken’s own fat do the work. Once you try it, you might never go back to roast chicken.
Ingredients
Directions
Notes
Mandy Lee (founder of the blog Lady & Pups) is showing us to make a perfectly crispy and juicy chicken. Armed only with kitchen shears and a nonstick skillet, she will show you easily de-joint and de-scaffold a bird so that it can achieve an unequivocally crispy and slow-cooked succulent and unbelievably juicy meat (even the breasts!) on the other. You may never want to roast another bird again. GET THE RECIPE ►► https://f52.co/37Vk4yl
And check out Mandy's blog ►► http://www.ladyandpups.com/
INGREDIENTS
One 3 pound chicken
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
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0:05 that 0:05 is the level of crispiness 0:09 my friend and trust me 0:13 you can't get this from roast chicken hi 0:16 um mandy again from lady and pups um 0:20 today i'm with fu52 0:22 to bring you probably one of my favorite 0:26 chicken dishes to make and i call it 0:29 flattening the bird 0:30 typically what the favorite thing that 0:33 people like to do to a chicken 0:34 is to season it and then as a whole just 0:37 stick it in the oven and 0:38 you know it's called the roast chicken 0:40 and but in my mind the pro the issue 0:42 with roast chicken is 0:44 what exactly are you after so number one 0:46 thing crispy skin number two 0:48 juicy meat none of those things can be 0:51 easily achieved in roast chicken recipes 0:54 because 0:55 as you can see a chicken is a very 0:57 three-dimensional object okay 0:59 so when you stick it in the oven it's 1:01 very very it has all these nooks and 1:02 crannies these corners and folds it's 1:04 very hard for 1:06 the oven to distribute even 1:10 heat all around the chicken typically 1:12 you get like a kind of a 1:15 overly browned breast skin and then 1:18 whereas like the skin on the bottom is 1:19 still kind of a soggy and still 1:21 still wet what i'm proposing is 1:25 we basically what we're gonna do is turn 1:28 this three-dimensional object 1:30 into a two-dimensional sheet okay so 1:33 you're gonna turn this chicken into a 1:35 sheet 1:36 and then it's going to cook slowly 1:38 instead of it in an oven 1:39 on a skillet and you're going to be 1:41 blown away by how 1:43 much more amazing the result is compared 1:47 to 1:47 a roast chicken the first thing i 1:49 usually do to a chicken 1:51 is i take off the um wishbone 1:55 [Music] 1:59 and there you go very easy okay 2:02 so the wishbone is gone okay 2:06 so now what i do is i will remove 2:11 the wingtip 2:15 and then brush side up i'm going to use 2:18 my scissor first 2:20 to basically cut through the skin 2:28 split this breast open 2:31 and you see that if i hadn't removed the 2:33 wishbone i'm going to 2:35 run into it right now and it just annoys 2:37 the hell out of me every single time 2:51 you can see like the chicken doesn't 2:53 want to open yet because the bone 2:55 is still kind of holding it into shape 2:58 so what we're going to do now is we're 2:59 going to 3:00 bend this leg until you hear a crack 3:05 you're basically trying to disconnect 3:09 the side bone with the backbone here 3:11 okay now see 3:14 much flatter okay but we're gonna go 3:17 even further than that okay 3:19 so the goal here is to basically 3:21 disconnect 3:23 every joint in this bird so that 3:27 it it has no nothing to hold itself 3:30 in shape anymore so number one thing 3:32 we're gonna do and it really you don't 3:34 have to follow 3:35 the sequence here you know like you can 3:38 do it 3:39 however you see fit but you know 3:41 typically 3:42 what i like to do is um i go for 3:46 the wing here where it joins with 3:50 the breast 4:10 [Music] 4:20 [Music] 4:23 you can see that step by step is getting 4:25 much much 4:26 flatter as we go okay 4:30 but now you can see that the leg here is 4:32 still 4:33 a 3d object so i still like folding it 4:35 like this 4:36 and this part of the skin is not going 4:38 to be in contact 4:40 with the skillet so what we're gonna do 4:42 is like i said we're gonna dismantle 4:46 every joint that's holding the bird 4:49 together 4:50 so i'm gonna feel 4:53 where the drumstick bone is connecting 4:57 to the thigh bone which is right here 5:00 and i'm going to give it a score and 5:02 that will sever it 5:03 very easily okay and now i'm going to 5:07 open this drum stick up 5:13 [Music] 5:17 try to give it a very clean score right 5:20 against the bone 5:21 where the meat and the bone touches 5:24 instead of like slashing everywhere 5:26 because you want the meat still you 5:27 you still want the meat to be intact 5:29 right 5:30 so now you can see how this part is 5:33 completely 5:34 flattened up right 5:38 is completely flat okay 5:42 so i'm just gonna do the same thing here 5:55 [Music] 5:59 so now it's a super 6:04 flappy flattened bird 6:07 okay it's not that hard and then there's 6:10 a pel 6:11 usually typically i don't you don't have 6:12 to do this but i like to remove 6:14 this pelvic bone here 6:21 you can see the skin side is going to be 6:23 where 6:24 it touches the skillet right so you want 6:27 every inch of skin 6:28 to be able to completely be 6:31 in in contact with the skillet so now 6:34 you can see 6:36 that i'm noticing that because like this 6:38 part here is laying 6:40 on top of the wing and it's not going to 6:42 be able to 6:44 fully touch the skillet so here i'm 6:47 going 6:48 to release 6:51 that 6:54 and then there this part used to be 6:58 over the wing so it cannot touch a 7:01 skillet 7:02 but now just give it a score and you you 7:04 just basically release it from 7:08 from that attachment and now it's 7:10 completely flat 7:18 there you go okay now it's completely 7:23 and utterly flat 7:27 and you can see it doesn't really take 7:28 up a lot of time at all 7:30 i promise you that once you've done this 7:32 once or twice 7:34 you'll get the hang of it and it's going 7:36 to be so much easier 7:38 um and unintimidating put a meat side up 7:42 first on a flat skillet like this 7:45 because we're gonna season the meat side 7:47 first 7:48 and here i have two and a half teaspoons 7:51 of sea salt and one teaspoon of 7:55 white pepper if you only have black 7:56 pepper that's fine too but i like white 7:58 pepper 8:00 um actually i will urge you to urge you 8:03 to try 8:03 white pepper i just think it pairs um 8:05 much better with chicken 8:08 so sprinkle half of that 8:12 on the meat side 8:21 try to be as even 8:25 as you possibly can 8:28 we don't want what we don't want is like 8:32 a mouthful of 8:33 salt when you eat it 8:44 so there so i put half of the seasoning 8:51 on the meat side and now i'm gonna flip 8:54 it 9:01 and i'm going to season the skin side 9:06 you know there are a lot of folds here 9:08 so try to lay it 9:10 as flat and spread out 9:14 as you possibly can my 9:18 my sheet is a little bit small smaller 9:21 um 9:22 so ideally you want to use a sheet 9:26 where the chicken can completely spread 9:29 out 9:31 but you know it's it's fine 9:35 okay and i'm gonna put the salt 9:38 on the skin side as well 9:41 again try to be as even as possible 9:47 the next step i feel like is a very 9:51 crucial step that 9:52 most people miss out whether you're 9:55 roasting chicken 9:56 or doing it this way or not it doesn't 9:58 matter number one rule that you need to 10:00 remember is 10:01 dry skin equals crispy skin 10:04 because why because moisture is the 10:06 enemy of crispiness we all know that 10:09 so a lot of recipes don't either they 10:12 don't notice or they fail to mention it 10:14 is that you always want to dry the skin 10:18 up before you cook them because that is 10:20 going to significantly 10:22 increase the crispiness of the skin so 10:24 what i like to do is 10:26 i like to leave the chicken in the 10:29 pan like this uncovered 10:33 and then i stick um the chicken in the 10:35 fridge 10:36 for i'm gonna say ideally 10:40 two hours at least okay two hours up to 10:44 like six hours 10:45 but if you don't have time try to at 10:47 least give it one hour 10:49 in the fridge because the fridge is 10:51 going to draw out 10:53 all the moisture from the chicken skin 10:55 and it's going to really really really 10:57 help you 10:58 trust me achieve that crackling like 11:01 chicken skin that we're all after 11:04 right so put in the fridge it's going to 11:07 be super dry 11:08 and you're going to be amazed so the 11:10 chicken had been 11:11 drying in the fridge for about two hours 11:15 and when you take it out um 11:19 you're gonna notice that the salt on the 11:22 skin it's gonna draw out the moisture 11:24 from the chicken and if you haven't left 11:27 it in the fridge 11:28 for long enough those moisture 11:32 are going to be still on the skin so 11:35 just take a paper towel 11:37 and just really thoroughly 11:40 let it dry okay if you have left your 11:43 chicken 11:44 in the fridge for six hours or so um it 11:46 will come out really dry 11:48 those excess moisture um would have 11:51 would have evaporated already but 11:54 um typically two hours um you will still 11:56 see 11:57 a little bit of moisture just hanging 12:00 around on the skin 12:01 so just use a paper towel 12:05 weld it really really really dry 12:08 okay bone dry 12:12 so once you've done that you're gonna 12:15 need 12:15 a really big non-stick 12:19 skillet non-stick okay 12:23 i can't stress this enough i mean i've 12:26 had people ask me like oh can i use my 12:27 grandma's cast iron 12:29 or you know blah blah blah okay you can 12:31 use anything as long as it doesn't 12:33 stick not even a little bit okay 12:37 so my skillet is about 30 centimeter 12:41 in diameter so you want a skillet this 12:43 is the minimal 12:45 um the smallest size of a skillet that 12:48 you can go okay because 12:49 any smaller the chicken is not going to 12:52 have room to 12:52 spread out then what is the point right 12:56 so what we're going to do is 12:59 cold skillet start with cold cocoa 13:02 skillet 13:04 we're going to transfer the chicken 13:07 onto the skillet 13:10 skin side down and then you're going to 13:14 take a little bit of time 13:16 to really make sure the chicken 13:20 is laying flat and 13:23 spread out you don't want any fold 13:26 of the skin 13:29 that's being tucked underneath 13:34 you know stretch it out as 13:38 as flat as possible i'm using a tongs 13:41 because i don't want to wash my hands 13:43 again 13:44 but you can use your hands 13:47 if you only have a one ring burner aim 13:50 for medium low heat 13:52 okay but um it's ideal that you use 13:55 a two ring burner because the heat is 13:57 more even 14:00 then you're going to put um a lid 14:04 that is only half covering it 14:07 partially okay you don't want the lid to 14:10 completely cover the skillet 14:12 because why the steam is going to 14:15 collect in the skillet and what is 14:19 um what is moisture the enemy of 14:21 crispiness right so we don't want any 14:24 moisture to be collected inside the 14:26 skillet 14:26 this is purely for preventing splatters 14:30 let's talk a little bit about why cold 14:33 skillet 14:34 with the cold skillet they're kind of 14:36 slowly raising the heat 14:38 so that all the moisture can be drawn 14:40 out before the browning starts okay does 14:42 that make sense so it's been about like 14:45 seven eight minutes and you can see that 14:48 a lot 14:49 a lot of chicken fat has been rendered 14:52 out 14:54 from the skin and that's exactly what 14:57 you want 14:58 and see if you want to see that 15:00 explosion right there that's why you 15:02 want 15:03 the partial lid to um well protect 15:06 yourself 15:07 and also the kitchen so 15:10 sometimes what i do is if 15:13 my skillet it's not super big that the 15:16 bird is completely spread out 15:18 um i like to tilt the skillet 15:24 just like this so that it can 15:27 cover all the parts 15:30 that is not that are not touching the 15:33 bottom 15:34 of the skillet and 15:37 10 minutes in you would have had 15:41 enough chicken fat in the skillet to do 15:43 that 15:44 you're kind of now really frying the 15:47 chicken 15:47 in its own fat 15:50 and meanwhile i've prepared cloves of 15:54 crushed garlic and a good small 15:58 handful of fresh thyme in my mortar 16:02 you can use any herbs you like but 16:04 really garlic and thyme 16:05 is just it can't go wrong with that 16:09 now it's about 30 minutes in and i'm 16:12 ready to flip the birds 16:13 and you can see this is when um the last 16:17 before i before i flip it that's when i 16:22 put in the garlic in the time 16:24 [Music] 16:29 and you want the time to pop like that 16:31 okay that's how it releases 16:33 um the fragrance 16:43 and then once the oil is 16:46 seasoned i'm going to 16:50 flip the burst 16:52 [Music] 16:56 now the beauty of this recipe is that 16:59 when you're ready once the skin is ready 17:01 the meat side has been slowly cooked and 17:04 almost done this too 17:05 so when you once you flip the bird you 17:07 really only just need two more minutes 17:10 to bring it to the finishing line and 17:12 now i have turned off the heat already 17:18 and please please please do not flip the 17:21 bird 17:23 before the skin looks like this 17:34 that is the level of crispiness 17:38 my friend that you want 17:43 and trust me you can't get this from 17:45 roast chicken 17:47 you see how the breast meat is still 17:49 really really moist 17:52 compared to well the roast chicken 17:56 is more like cardboardy 18:00 kind of like powdery texture it's still 18:02 really really tender and juicy 18:05 i'm gonna start with the thigh because 18:07 that's my favorite part 18:18 seriously i don't know if you can hear 18:19 that 18:21 no roast chicken will sound like that i 18:23 i promise you 18:28 [Music] 18:32 salty super concentrated chickeny-ness 18:40 it's almost like the chicken is fried 18:42 which it kind of actually 18:43 is it's kind of fried it in its own fat 18:51 but when you get a skin when you get the 18:53 chicken skin 18:54 skin too crisp up 18:58 excuse me don't top with my mouth though 19:02 when you get the chicken skin to crisp 19:04 up to this extent 19:07 the intensity is incomparable 19:10 to skin that is still semi moist 19:14 semi-soft 19:16 um not completely fully dried up 19:20 it just tastes completely it's not even 19:21 the same animal so there 19:24 this is my favorite chicken recipe and 19:27 i can't tell you without you trying it i 19:30 can't i just can't tell you how much 19:31 better it is than 19:33 just a typical roast chicken and once 19:36 you try it 19:37 once or twice you're going to realize 19:39 it's really really not that hard 19:40 it's quite easy to do and the cooking 19:43 process 19:44 is quite a cinch and 19:47 yeah so i hope you like it and give it a 19:50 try 19:51 let me know what you think and i hope to 19:53 see you next time