Bacon and Herb Chicken

I don't like to make meat because I hate the feeling of cold, raw meat in my hands.  I keep telling myself I'm going to stop making meat at home and only eat it when it's prepared for me. But, then I flip through a cookbook and find a recipe like "Bacon-and-Herb-Rubbed Salt-Baked Chicken." Chicken, rubbed with bacon and herbs? As soon as my interest is piqued, there is nothing I can do but make the recipe! The other interesting part of this recipe is that it calls for 4 pounds (yeah, you heard me correctly, pounds) of salt. Forgive me for not doling out the money to buy 4 pounds of salt for one chicken. I don't like meat that much. Anyway, the salt gets mixed with egg whites that bakes into a  hard casing outside of the chicken to hold in the moisture. If I'm ever going to try making a whole chicken, it's gotta be this one!

Objective
Cook a whole chicken rubbed with bacon and herbs and baked under a salt "helmet"! Adapted from Olives and Oranges (recipe here).

Materials
8 ounces bacon
4 cloves garlic
15 sage leaves
6 sprigs rosemary
2 dried chiles de árbol
5 egg whites
2 1/2 cups salt
3 1/2 pound whole chicken

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Line a 9x13" baking dish (or roasting pan) with aluminum foil. 
2. Whisk the egg whites until frothy. Whisk in the salt. Pour one third of the mixture on the aluminum foil to form a bed for the chicken.
3. Finely chop the raw bacon, garlic (can use garlic press), sage leaves and rosemary leaves. Mix together to form the rub. 
4.Rub one third of the mixture on the breast-side of the chicken. Place the chicken breast-side-down into the salt bed. 
5. Rub the top of the chicken with the remaining bacon/herb rub. Pour the remaining salt and egg white mixture over the chicken, trying to coat the chicken with the mixture.
6. Bake for 90 minutes. Make sure the thickest part of the chicken registers over 165° and the juices are clear. Rest 10-15 minutes.
7. Remove the salty crust and carve.

Results
This chicken was incredible! It was well-flavored from the herbs but not overly salty. It was very tender and moist. Even the breast meat was tender.

Discussion
This may have been the best chicken I've ever had! The egg white/salt "helmet" sealed in the moisture and the herbs and bacon flavored the meat nicely. The original recipe called for 7 cups of salt. I didn't have the heart to add that much and 2 1/2 cups of salt did the trick! The easiest thing to do next time would be to buy a 26-oz package of salt and dedicate it for use in this recipe (which would be more than 2 1/2 cups). I don't think the amount of salt is as important as making sure to coat the entire chicken.

I've been trying to find a good reference to explain why the salt coat is important. Most sources discuss osmosis and the difference in salt concentration within the chicken versus the coat. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find an explanation that I find convincing. To me this seems like a poor explanation for two reasons: 1. the cells are dead, so I would imagine the salt would dehydrate the cells because the dead cell lacks the ability to pump ions across the membrane to maintain cell size and solute concentration so the water would move out of the cell, blah, blah, blah and 2. even with diffusion occurring, I don't believe it would be enough to penetrate the entire chicken. The most convincing explanation I've found relates to process of making a brine. The explanation was that the increased concentration of salt denatures the proteins, allowing them to interact with and bind more water molecules, which will be maintained throughout the cooking process. However, this recipe doesn't actually make a brine. Instead, I think the salt coat prevents the water from evaporating as the chicken cooks (simple as this--put a lid on a pot while it's cooking and less water will be able to evaporate and escape the pot).

All I could think about was how delicious a Thanksgiving turkey could be prepared this way, though it might actually take 7 cups of salt! Because of the increased cooking time required for a turkey to cook properly, it might not be as moist as a small chicken, but I'd really like to try.

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