Rescues · TO TRUSS
Wing tips are black.
Why it happens
Not tucked. They have almost no mass and burn long before anything else is ready.
Recovering it
A bird that is drying at the breast can be turned breast-down for the remainder, which shields it and lets the thighs catch up. Burnt wing tips are simply removed. If the breast is already overcooked, carve the two halves separately and return the legs to the oven — serving the parts at their own doneness is far better than waiting for the worst of them.
The mechanism
An untrussed chicken is a collection of parts with very different thicknesses and very different heat requirements. Breast meat is lean and dries out above about 68°C; thigh meat is full of connective tissue and is only really good past 74°C. Left splayed, the thin extremities and the outer breast are fully exposed while the thigh joint sits shielded, so the breast overshoots long before the thigh arrives. Trussing pulls the legs in against the body, closing the cavity and shielding the inner breast, which narrows the gap between the two. It does not eliminate it — nothing does, which is why spatchcocking takes the opposite approach and flattens the bird so everything is exposed equally. Both are valid; they solve the same problem in opposite directions.
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