I’m still trying to figure out when to use what level of steam. I get the general idea being steam helps keep moisture in food and no steam helps crisp and brown food better. However, the roast chicken recipe in the APO app calls for 0% steam. Why is that? Wouldn’t you want the chicken to stay juicy? I don’t think it’s about the skin because there’s a step after the chicken reaches temperature to turn up the oven temp and crisp the skin. What am I missing?
Also any other steam vs no steam tips welcome!
We’ve had SOME luck with low levels of steam (like 25% or less), but chicken fat, more than any other fat, seems to take on water and become rubber, and if you get too much water in the fat, it will never crisp – at least, not before the chicken dries way much more than it would have if you had cooked it at 0% in the first place.
If you use any steam on a chicken, make sure to air out the oven thoroughly before you put the chicken back in to crisp.
And, honestly, the best way to get a crispy chicken is with a rotisserie on a barbecue. But pork shoulder? Yeah, ask me about pork shoulder in the steam oven.
Good luck!
Joe
Please share your method with pork shoulder! thank you
I’ve posted it before, but it’s actually pretty simple:
- Tie up a whole shoulder (or you’ll never be able to move it). I also drop that into a turkey rack to make it easy to move
- Salt, pepper, maybe a barbecue rub if you’re so inclined
- 18 hours at 148 degrees at 100% humidity
- either 4-6 hours on a smoker at about 175 or 20 minutes in a very hot oven, to build a bark on the shoulder
You will never have better pork.