Dry salt 12–24 hours if you can

Free food & cooking tip: Dry salt 12–24 hours if you can (step 3 of 16 from "Weeknight Roast Chicken").

Sprinkle 12 g kosher salt (about 2 tsp Diamond Crystal, or 1½ tsp if you use a denser salt) over the whole bird: back, breast, legs, a pinch in the cavity. Set it on a rack over a tray, uncovered, in the fridge 12–24 hours. The salt dissolves, the surface dries, and the skin will brown instead of looking pale and rubbery.

This is not a wet brine. No sugar, no cider, no 4-litre bucket. Pepper and oil go on later so they do not sit overnight and look muddy. If the bird is already labeled kosher or 'enhanced' with a salt solution, use 4 g salt total or none — taste a scrap of raw skin if you are unsure; it should not already taste like ham.