Chicken on Salt (Kura na Soli)
Ingredients: chicken, 2 lbs salt, side (rice works great)
Prep Time: 10 minutes of prep, then 2 hours for baking
In this recipe I show you how my mom bakes chicken. This’s got to be the easiest (and tastiest!) chicken recipe ever! Just place the chicken on a bed of salt, stick in the oven, serve. No basting required and all you need is one whole chicken and about 2lbs of salt.
2lbs of salt?? Won’t the chicken be insanely salty? No, not at all. The salt acts to absorb moisture from the air, and the dry air turns the skin deliciously crunchy. The crunchy skin then helps seal the juices in, kind of like how an egg shell keeps the liquid insides from leaking out. You end up with a chicken that is succulently crunchy on the outside, yet completely moist on the inside. The best of both worlds…
This is all you need: a whole chicken (kura) and about one a half of these salt (soľ) containers. Preheat your oven to 400F.
Take out the bag of giblets (the insides) and rinse off the chicken all around. Then take a paper towel and completely dry off the bird. The salt won’t stick if the chicken is dry.
Pour the salt into a baking pan. Make a dimple in the middle, but not so deep that the bottom of the pan shows through. Place the chicken there, breast side up. Lightly salt the top and also the inside. But really go light with the salting (I overdid it a bit, so don’t use the photo as a guide). Stick the chicken in the oven and bake for about 2 hours, until golden brown. The general rule of thumb is to bake one hour for every 2 lbs of weight. Leave the door closed to keep the moist air out.
Some 30 minutes prior to the chicken being done, start working on the side. Chicken in Slovakia is almost exclusively served with rice. Perhaps you could find French fries, but rice really seems to have the competition in the bag when it comes to chicken. In Slovakia, we also don’t eat a separate course of salad. Instead our veggies are served with the main dish. This is called obloha, derived from the word obložiť, to garnish. After you take the chicken out, brush off whatever salt you can from the top. The outside may be little salty, but the inside won’t be at all. Enjoy!
Let me know what you think. Does your family also prepare chicken like this?
we did not make chicken this way, however I learned how to make fish in salt crust (though it was after I came to the US and the recipee is from islands.)
Difference is that you roll the whole wish in salt so it sticks and creates the salt crust. After baking, you break the salt crust and you get a delicious suculent fish, moisty and not salty at all
Miro, turns out that people do the same with chicken. I posted this recipe to a Slovak forum, and one of the readers commented that his buddy from Martin coats the whole chicken with salt, and then just peels the “casket” away at the end. Although, I suspect that the outer skin would be rather salty then, and the best thing about this recipe is the crunchy skin you get. My favorite cut of meat is the skin 🙂
This is a whole fish? Any particular kind? I cook fish about 2x a wk so I’d like to try this. Certainly will try the chicken.
Ooh… yes, I think I heard about this recipe, BUT – I disagree about chicken being served almost exclusively with rice! In my experience it is most often served with potatoes. I think it is safe to say, as a general rule, that the way meals are served differs vastly from region to region, almost as much as the language does! 🙂
Thanks DG – I learn something new every day. I gotta admit, my generalization is based on my own experience, which is in turn largely based on the cooking of my family. So yes, I would suppose the side could vary, perhaps not even region to region, but family to family. So, let me restate my previous statement: *I* have never had baked chicken in Slovakia with anything but rice 🙂
How do you do it Lubos?! What’s your secret ingredient?
I cook and I get “thank you, it was good”. never I get what Nicole said … orgasmic.
aka:
I tasted this chicken straight from Lubos’ kitchen and it was simply orgasmic. My stomach had been bothering me lately and Chef Lubos’ chicken hit the spot.
Damn, I want to know!!!! 🙂
Anyway, just having some fun, leaving for California tomorrow, won’t be cooking just having some fun and eating good food … I hope
I tasted this chicken straight from Lubos’ kitchen and it was simply orgasmic. My stomach had been bothering me lately and Chef Lubos’ chicken hit the spot.
@Lubos, yes you’ll lose the skin so if crusty skin is what you like don’t do “fully salt crusted chicken” When it comes to fish, most folks don’t care about skin and don’t eat it even when fish is done other way, thus salt crusted fish is fine.
@Marycay Doolittle
any smaller fish about up to 4 lb will do, red snapper, rock fish, trout, small bass or carp, tilapia, etc.
Don’t use it on a big ocean fish, like tuna, salmon, swordfish, etc.
Here is a way to do it.
Mix egg white and some water in w/ kosher salt. Some salt/pepper on the fish….herbs inside the fish. Lay about a 3/4″ layer of salt on the bottom of a baking sheet; lay the fish on top, and cover with salt on top, about 3/4 inch. Put in 450 oven for about 20 minutes. Take out, let rest 10 minutes, then crack open the salt layer w/ a mallet, peel back the salt, peel back the skin….yielding the most deliciously moist fish you can imagine.
oh BTW, it’s easier to do it with fish, as fish is more flat than chicken and thus creating a salt crust is easier
Is there a way of reusing this vast amount of salt? Although salt is not that expensive, throwing it away seems like a bit of a waste..
I totally agree. I have never tried reusing the salt, but you may be able to save the bits near the edges of the pan. The salt near the chicken will be soaked with juices and is thus useless for future use.
This was the best chicken ever. I never cook, rely mostly on tuna fish canned and take out. This is soooooooo easy and so delicious. Sunday afternoon, when you do not know what to do, pop this chicken in the oven.Great receipe and very very easy
Awesome, glad you liked it!
“Chicken on Salt” is an awkward, if literal, translation. It doesn’t make much sense in English because if one use the word “on” in a recipe it usually refers to the physical placement of the food. It is literally on top of whatever it is “on”. With this title, one would expect the chicken to be sitting on a bed of salt, not really an appetizing prospect. A better title for the recipe, given the description above, might be “Salt Encrusted Baked Chicken” or even “Baked Chicken With Salt”. Of course modern cooking in many nations has turned away from excessive use of salt for health reasons.
Števo, je to presne tak. Kura sa pečie položené na 1 kile soli. Samotné kura sa osolí mierne teda primerane, nerobí sa žiadna krusta. Komu je kura na skúšku veľa, môže piecť kuracie stehná.
Ponúkam Vám rôzne úpravy hydinového masa.
http://www.oblubenerecepty.sk/kuracie-maeso.html?start=99
Stevo, it may sound strange but that’s what happenes. You put chicken on a salt. I think it has something to do with chicken juices going back and forth between chicken and a salt bed.
I know what you are thinking, as I used it also and it’s good – The whole fish baked in a salt crust. In that case you indeed wrap the fish in a salt, all over, and the result is amazing as it keeps a fish meat moist.
but this technique for chicken is different, don’t ask me why and who came up with it, but it works 🙂
I made this at the firehouse yesterday. It’s perfect because there is practically no prep time, so I can get it in the oven quick instead of being interrupted with calls.
Got a bunch of strange looks and “this is gonna be some dry chicken” comments as I filled a pan full of salt.
But they all came around once I popped it out of the oven and they could see the juice bubbling under the crispy skin.
I make it at home all the time for the wife and I.
Thanks for the reminder, Jason! Haven’t made this on in a while!
try to seasoning the chicken with olive oil, peper, and a little bit of vegeta.Also place some garlic inside small cut in the chicken. ( sorry for my bad english)
This is one that I will definitely be trying in the future, I love simple food, and I’ve found over time that Slovak cooking makes WONDERFUL use of simple foods, bringing some of the best flavours that can be found.
In the comments, someone asked about what might be done with the leftover salt; I’m wondering if it can be saved (crushed back into grainy form, if necessary) and then used to season chicken dishes or soups – or perhaps side dishes such as rice, vegetables, mashed potatoes etc. – or maybe even to season fučka or something similar? This is just an idea – I haven’t made this yet, so I don’t know if it would work, but I am guessing that all those chicken juices would really make a nice seasoned salt.
Regarding the fish in a salt crust mentioned by Miro – this is a wonderful way to prepare fish! I have done it almost exactly the same as Miro describes. If anyone is interested, step-by-step photos can be found here: http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/pesce-al-forno-in-crosta-di-sale_topic2467.html ~ This was my first attempt, so it wasn’t perfect-looking, but it was delicious!
Many thanks for a great idea that will make a wonderful chicken dinner, Lubos ~ I will see if I can make it this weekend, and will document with photos etc.
Ron
Did anyone tried the recipe with the wings only?
The temperature is probably lower then 400F..
Interested to know the outcome.
Thanks.
BTW: I never tried to bake this recipe in Slovakia.
First time I heard about this (“slovakian recipe”) was in US. ;o)
My husband’s mom and dad were born in Sumiac. His mom always made pork kidney stew.
she called it (I do not know the correct spelling) Prokrupki. Unfortunately she has passed and the recipe went with her. If anyone can help me I would be forever grateful. Thanks!
I first came across this in Russia. My friend who cooked the chicken was from a family with Ukrainian roots. Watching the process with all that salt I was skeptical, but the chicken was the tastiest I have ever tasted.
Also the chicken itself was so different from the horrible bulked-up Western European chickens in supermarkets. Truly we have destroyed the pleasure of good wholesome food enjoyed by our ancestors.