One of the most coveted parts of a roast chicken isn’t the legs, breasts, or thighs — it’s those little bits of extra-crispy chicken skin. Getting crispy skin on your bird isn’t always an easy task, but there's a dead-simple prep step you can try early in the cooking process that will ensure crispy skin and moist meat.

Drying your chicken is the key to crisp skin, and all you have to do is pat the chicken dry with paper towels and rest it uncovered in the fridge overnight, allowing cold air to circulate around it and evaporate moisture. When it hits the pan, excess moisture, the enemy of crispy skin, will sizzle away and the skin will start to crisp up.

The little uncovered, overnight stay in the fridge also gives you the chance to add extra seasonings, and salt in particular helps to draw out additional moisture. You can also add baking powder to your salt mixture at a ratio of 1 teaspoon to 4 teaspoons of salt, which helps the chicken's fat render out and improves browning.