How to Truss a Chicken Without Twine

No twine? No problem. Here’s how to truss a chicken without it.

There’s nothing worse than getting that bird all prettied up and ready to cook and then realize you’re out of twine. Figuring out how to truss a chicken without it can be quite annoying.

I’ve been there. There’s really no decent substitute for good butcher’s twine. I’ve made due with haphazard substitutes for oven cooking, but a rotisserie on the grill is a different story. Chicken cooked in this manner needs to be tied fairly well. Otherwise, as the rotisserie rotates, the chicken sort of flops around like a, well…like a chicken with its head chopped off. If only I’d have saved enough twine. At least enough to tie around my finger to remind me to buy more butcher’s twine.

Good news! We don’t need no stinkin’ twine. Food & Wine’s Test Kitchen chicken champion Justin Chapple shows us how to truss a chicken using its own skin. It’s fast, it’s easy and we’ll no longer be held hostage by twine. Try it. You’ll love it.

Thanks to Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple for the tip! For more wonderfully oddball and genius cooking tips, check out his exclusive video series, MAD GENIUS TIPS.

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How to Truss a Chicken Without Twine