Rating are my personal thoughts
This recipe comes from the “Favorite Recipes: Homestyle (2002)” recipe book by the Blue Ridge Homemakers. This specific recipe was provided by Peggy Shaw. Listed under “Main Dishes”, salt-baked chicken is an easy beginner-friendly baked chicken recipe.
Ingredients
4 cups salt
1 – 3 1/2 lbs chicken
1 lemon, ends trimmed and pierced with a fork a few times
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 cup water
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line roasting pan with aluminum foil and cover the foil with a thick layer of salt. Sprinkle chicken cavity with thyme and stuff with the whole lemon. Place chicken, breast side down on top of the salt layer and cover completely with the remainder of the salt. Sprinkle with water to seal and place in preheated oven. Bake uncovered for 1 hour.
Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Break crust and remove all traces of the salt. if necessary wipe with a paper towel. Cut into serving pieces.
Thoughts and Tips
This chicken was extremely juicy and had a good flavor. I wouldn’t change anything about this recipe.
When preparing the chicken, I slid my hands between the chicken skin and flesh as I’ve read this can make the skin more crispy.
I served this meal with yellow rice and green beans. It was a good combination.
I’ve read the salt can be reused if it’s clean but when I removed the chicken from the pan, the salt was saturated with chicken juice. I didn’t think that it was salvageable and so threw it away. I used an entire 3 pound box of salt.