You don’t strictly need one. People have roasted chickens straight on the bottom of a tin, or on a bed of chopped onions and carrots, for generations. But if the underside of your roast always comes out pale and soggy while the top looks great, the tin is the problem.
Meat sitting flat in a tin ends up stewing in its own juices. The bottom never gets any dry heat, so the skin there stays flabby. Lift the joint up off the base and hot air gets underneath. The fat drips away rather than pooling around it, and you get crisper skin all over, plus a tin of clean drippings for the gravy.
A rack solves that, and GoodCook’s Everyday Roasting Rack is the kind I’d go for. It’s a simple V-shaped wire rack, and it’s adjustable, which is the main reason to choose it over a fixed one. The two sides clip into notches along the base, and there are seven positions. Open it wide and flat for a pork belly or a rolled joint. Close it into a deep V to cradle a whole chicken so it doesn’t roll over. It’s around 11.5 x 10.8 inches and sits inside a standard 9 x 13 inch baking tin or casserole dish, so you don’t need to buy a big roasting pan to go with it.
It’s heavy-gauge chrome-plated steel, which GoodCook says won’t rust, and it folds completely flat when you’re done. Honestly, that matters to me more than anything else about it. A fixed V rack is an awkward shape that never fits anywhere, and this one slides in next to your baking trays.
It’s sized for chickens and medium joints, not a big Christmas turkey. Wire racks are also horrible to scrub once fat has baked on, so soak it while you’re eating rather than the next morning. And pour a splash of water or stock into the tin under the meat, or the drippings can burn before you’ve even started the gravy.
