Why You Should Start Pre-Salting Your Chicken

Before Iranian-American chef Samin Nosrat released her invaluable bestselling cookbook "Salt Fat Acid Heat" in 2017, pre-salting chicken — that is, salting it well in advance of cooking — was relatively unheard-of among home cooks. Even Julia Child, whose cooking tips make every meal a work of art, salted chicken right before cooking, a tip home cooks have used ever since. And that may be why your chicken is still coming out depressingly dry.

Nosrat says there's a window when you should pre-salt chicken for optimal flavor and juiciness. She likes to salt a full day in advance, but if you just bought your chicken that day, she says go ahead and pre-salt for dinner that evening. "Any time is better than none, and more is better than some," writes Nosrat. So even if you only have a couple of hours before dinner, go ahead and salt beforehand and see what happens.

The reason for pre-salting is the same reason it's so easy to amplify your fried chicken with a salty pickle juice marinade. The magic happens through processes called osmosis and diffusion. Osmosis is when a solution like saltwater moves through a semipermeable membrane. When you salt chicken right before dinner, water is drawn out of the protein cells, resulting in dry, tough cooked meat. But if you leave it long enough, the salty water is brought back in through diffusion, which is when the molecules move back through the membrane in an effort to evenly distribute the solution across cells. In effect, with enough time, not only will your chicken be salted on the outside, you'll enjoy a consistent flavor all the way through the meat.

Another reason pre-salting is so effective is because the salt dissolves the protein strands into a gel, which makes the chicken better able to absorb and retain liquids as it cooks. But that process also takes time. So to give Samin Nosrat's method a fair shake, and pre-salt your chicken a full day before roasting, using ¾ teaspoon per pound. You may never cook a dry, unpalatable bird again.