Use a Hair Dryer to Get Crispy Chicken
Even if you don’t normally use them to dry your hair, it is helpful to have hair dryers with you for a number of different tasks. New Yorker food correspondent Helen Rosner made a splash on the internet this week by sharing another one: crispy chicken skin .
This method was first applied in 1978 by culinary genius Marcella Hazan, but many of us don’t think about it when we actually fry the poultry ourselves.
As Rosner points out, a hairdryer is for all intents and purposes the same as a hot air gun in a tool shop, it is just that you will likely have it in your home.
Rosner used the (very expensive) Dyson Supersonic to make her chicken, but you can use any hair dryer and get the same effect. Hazen’s recipe is to dip the duck in boiling water and then blow dry. She describes this technique in detail in her book, The Basics of Classical Italian .
Rosner suggests air-drying the chicken for 24 hours in the refrigerator, then blow-chill the chicken to remove moisture from the skin. Then add a layer of butter or oil and start cooking the chicken in the cold, gradually raising the temperature to 450 degrees over 80 minutes.
You can check out the full recipe on her Twitter thread here .
Aside from crispy chicken, a hair dryer can also come in handy to give a silky appearance to the top of a cake, reignite the grill fire, or lightly melt chocolate before shaving.