what's the difference between boiling chicken at 212F and roasting chicken at 212F?

Question

on one hand, the temp is coming from the liquid
on the other hand, the temp is from the air.

but what other key differences? and will they both come out the same?

Answer 1

Boiling will give your meat an entirely different consistency than roasting. Roasting a chicken gives you the maillard reaction, which is where you will get the nice, toasty flavor in the skin and therefore in the meat. Plus, roasting concentrates the juices/flavors in your meat.

Boiling your meat is a little bit faster, but not nearly as flavorful and it can make your chicken tough. Otherwise, you're meat is always going to cook through at 212F no matter what method you use. You just want to pick a method that gives the best result.

Answer 2

When you cook chicken in water, the flavor is pulled out of the bird and into the water so your chicken won't have much flavor since it gave it to the water. There is a way to cook it in the water where it keeps it's flavor and that is to bring the water to the boil, drop in the chicken, bring back to the boil, cook 5 minutes, put the lid on and turn off the heat. Let it sit in the pot until room temperature. The chicken will be cooked perfectly. But, there won't be any crispiness or outside flavor from a crust or skin.

If you boil it for a period of time, the muscles tighten up and the meat is tough. Cooking it in the oven loosens the muscles when you use a low heat. I wouldn't roast a chicken at 212º. That is a warming temperature and can build bacteria. 300º-325º minimum temperature to use when cooking chicken. The lower the temperature (meaning 300 vs 500º), the more relaxed the meat will be when it's done. Broiling can tighten it up just like a charlie horse in your leg.

Flavor-wise, a roast chicken will have more of that.

Answer 3

Boiling a chicken at 212 will cook it fairly quickly and if you use salt/pepper/parsley/carrot you will have a nice broth to work with.
If you cook in an oven at 212 it will take HOURS to cook, but will be very tender! Cook covered, season the skin, salt, pepper, paprika. Uncover the last hour to crisp skin.
I recommend oven roasting at closer to 325 for an hour to hour and a half, depending on weight. Chicken cooked this way maintains it's natural juices and is tastier than boiled chicken (which is usually used to chop up and add into a recipe such as enchiladas or chicken salad) where so much of the flavor is left behind in the water/broth.

Answer 4

Definately not. The flavor is the major difference. In boiling, sure it gets hot, but the fat is not cooked onto and into the meat, it just boils out. The roasting allows the fat to cook into the meat an form a crust that helps keep moisture in. Boiling tend to not put flavors into anything, even if you season the water.

Roasting however will let you season the bird and then have the flavors cooked onto and into it.

Boiled foods will always be blah tasting, water is not a good cooking meduim if you want you food to have flavor.

Answer 5

water and not crispy unless you go to Wendy's and try my dad's (Dave) fried chicken tenders. There is no mistake with that, never soggy just prefect and crispy.