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Some processed chickens are injected with a saline solution in a chicken broth base. Read all labels carefully. While juiced birds are more succulent for the grill, they have a higher sodium content and are prebrined, like kosher birds. Reduce the salt in the recipe—you can add more at the table.

One final note. Contrary to common lore, the pink liquid in the package is not blood. It’s para>water absorbed during the initial chilling process, tinted by residual hemoglobin in the meat. All blood is removed during processing; only a little remains at the joints. Blood in the meat renders a processed chicken unfit for human consumption by U.S. law.

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Cooking Poultry to the Right Temperature

The USDA recommends that most poultry (with the exception of oddities like pheasant) be cooked to an internal temperature of 180°F at the thigh and 170°F at the breast. Pop-up timers, a modern convenience, are usually placed in the breast; but truth is, the roasted internal temperature is more accurate at the thigh. The breast’s varying thickness makes it a fairly unreliable gauge.

We prefer a lower temperature at the thigh, around 165°F. Frankly, almost all bacterial growth stops at 140°F and most bacteria are eliminated by 160°F. Plus, we like the meat slightly pink at the bone. (By contrast, most Continental chefs take the bird out of the oven at 150°F or lower—that is, bloody at the bone.)

If you choose to cook a bird to a temperature below the USDA guideline, you should understand both the benefits (juicier, more tender meat) and the complications (some pathogens may remain). If you’re in doubt or if you prefer absolutely no pink bits in the meat, hold out for the higher temperature.

The only reliable way to determine the roasted temperature is with a meat thermometer. By and large, you have two choices: an instant-read thermometer, inserted at the moment you want to know the temperature; or the traditional, leave-it-in-while-roasting probe, inserted before the bird goes into the oven. Don’t confuse the two; an instant-read thermometer’s dial will melt in the oven.

Insert the thermometer’s needlelike shaft into the thigh at its thickest part, the part that juts out toward the smaller opening at the back of the bird (that is, the neck opening). Make sure the shaft gets to the center of the thigh but doesn’t touch the bone. If it will not stay stationary, try again on the other thigh.

Some recipes in older cookbooks recommend you take a bird out of the oven when it’s 10 degrees below the required temperature. While this trick works with cuts of beef and pork, it doesn’t work as well with poultry. Yes, a turkey will continue to gain as much as 7 or 8 degrees as it sits; a whole chicken, perhaps 4 or 5 degrees. But a boneless skinless chicken breast? No more than a degree or two. For safety’s sake, cook the meat to the required temperature, rather than relying on the slipshod method of letting the temperature rise by atmospherics.

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Chicken Roasted in a Salt Crust

Under the salt dome, chicken steams and roasts all at once, resulting in an impossibly juicy bird, not well browned but quite tasty—and not nearly as salty as you might expect. The grape leaves impart a delicate, earthy taste and make desalting the bird much easier. Use kosher salt, a coarse-grained salt that, paradoxically, adheres to a compact dough. Makes 4 to 6 servings

6 pounds kosher salt

3 cups water

One 16-ounce jar grape leaves, drained and rinsed

2 lemons, cut into quarters

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon cracked black peppercorns

One 4-to 5-pound chicken, giblets and neck removed

Butcher’s twine

Position the rack in the lower third of the oven; preheat the oven to 350°F.

Stir the salt and water in a large bowl to form a thick, doughlike paste. Place 3 cups in the bottom of a large roasting pan, patting it out to about 5 inches larger than the chicken. Pack down, then cover completely with a double layer of overlapping grape leaves (perhaps 15 in total), leaving