Around My French Table (40 page)
Read Around My French Table Online
Authors: Dorie Greenspan
CHICKEN
Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux
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Hurry-up-and-Wait Roast Chicken
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M. Jacques' Armagnac Chicken
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Chicken in a Pot: The Garlic and Lemon Version
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Chicken Basquaise
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Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes
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Chicken Couscous
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Chicken Breasts Diable
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Chicken, Apples, and Cream à la Normande
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Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken
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Curried Chicken, Peppers, and Peas en Papillote
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Chicken B'stilla
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Olive-Olive Cornish Hens
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Sausage-Stuffed Cornish Hens
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DUCK
Twenty-Minute Honey-Glazed Duck Breasts
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Duck Breasts with Fresh Peaches
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Pan-Seared Duck Breasts with Kumquats
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L
ES PARESSEUX
ARE LAZY PEOPLE,
and this is a recipe perfect for them—and the rest of us too—because once you put the chicken in the oven, you've got nothing more to do but pull it out when the timer buzzes ninety minutes or so later. You can roast the chicken by itself, but if you've got some garlic and onions, herbs, and a few root vegetables in the bin, adding them to the pot can only make dinner more delicious.
Because the chicken stays in one place—it isn't turned or basted—you can do what I think of as the bread trick. Before you put the chicken in the pot, you put a slice of bread (or two slices of baguette) in the center of the pot and then rest the bird on it. As the chicken roasts, the bread will imbibe its juices and, after a while, crisp and become a treat so tasty that even the most generous person won't want to share it—you have my permission to keep it all to yourself (I do). If you want to make a good thing even better, tuck the liver into the bird's cavity, and when it's cooked, mash and spread it over the juicy piece of bread, drizzle it with some of the fat from the pot, and sprinkle it with salt.
One last thing: the chicken is made in a Dutch oven, so there are no splatters, a boon to the lazy and the energetic alike.
| Olive oil | |
| 1 | thick slice bread or 2 slices baguette |
| 1 | chicken, 4½ to 5 pounds, preferably organic (reserve the liver if it came with the chicken), at room temperature |
| Salt and freshly ground pepper | |
| 2 | sprigs each rosemary, thyme, and oregano |
| 1 | garlic head, cut horizontally in half, unpeeled |
| About ⅔ cup dry white wine or water (optional) | |
| 4 | baby potatoes, scrubbed and quartered (optional) |
| 2 | carrots, trimmed, peeled, and cut into thick chunks (optional) |
| 4 | shallots, left whole, or 1 onion, quartered (optional) |
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Rub the inside of a Dutch oven or other large high-sided casserole with oil and place the bread in the center of the pot. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Put the liver, if you've got it, inside the chicken and toss in a half sprig of each of the herbs as well as one half of the garlic. Put the chicken in the pot, resting it on the bread. Put the other garlic half in the pot, along with the remaining herbs, and pour in a few tablespoons each of oil and the wine or water, if you're using it. Slide the pot into the oven.
If you'd like to roast the vegetables with the chicken, wait until the chicken has roasted for 45 minutes. Then toss the potatoes, carrots, and shallots with enough olive oil to give them a shine, season generously with salt and pepper, and scatter them around the chicken. Roast the chicken undisturbed for about 45 minutes more—a total of about 90 minutes—or until the skin is crackly and crisp and the juices run clear when you pierce the thickest part of the thigh with the tip of a knife. Remove the chicken from the oven.
If you're feeling really lazy, you can leave the chicken in the pot for 5 to 10 minutes to rest before serving. If you've got a bit more get-up-and-go, to get the juices back into the breast meat, put a cereal bowl at one end of a large platter and transfer the chicken, breast side down, to the platter. Let it rest under a foil tent, tail leaning on the bowl and pointing up, for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Should you want a little pan sauce—and you'll only get a little—spoon the vegetables, if you've got them, into a bowl, remove the bread, and skim off as much of the fat remaining in the pot as possible. Put the pot over high heat, and when the liquid boils, pour in about ½ cup wine or water and cook, scraping up whatever bits may have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Remove from the heat.
Carve the chicken and serve with the sauce, if you made it.
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
SERVING
After you've grabbed the juice-soaked bread and chicken liver, if you have it, for yourself (see headnote), carve the chicken and serve it with the pan sauce and roasted vegetables, if you made them. If you roasted only the chicken, you can serve it with any kind of green vegetable or a simple salad.
STORING
Leftover chicken can be covered and refrigerated for 3 to 4 days.
Years ago I was cooking dinner for Jacques Pépin in our house near his in Connecticut. When Jacques arrived, I was in the kitchen giving the chicken we'd be having for dinner a nice bath, making sure to rinse it all over, inside, outside, and behind its wings. "What are you doing?" the normally soft-spoken chef exclaimed rather loudly.
"Washing the chicken. Don't you wash your chicken?" I asked.
His answer was succinct: "Chickens from Bresse don't need to be washed."
I should think they don't. The Bresse chicken—Bresse being both the breed of the chicken and its hometown (a town close to Jacques's birthplace)—is a French national treasure. Not only is it red (its crown), white (its body), and blue (its feet), but it's raised according to such exacting standards that each one is tagged with a number (and a very high price). But my chicken had just come from the local butcher and didn't have such a pedigree.
Still, why was I washing it? My mother didn't wash her chicken. I'd never seen any cook in France scrub a bird, whether the bird came from Bresse or the supermarket. What was I doing? I was following the then-current food-safety advice.
Now that advice has changed. These days, the prevailing wisdom is that chicken shouldn't be given a precook rinse, because the same bacteria that we're trying to wash away cross-contaminates whatever tools come in contact with it and whatever gets splashed by the wash-up water in the process. And besides, whatever we try to wash away will be done in when the bird is cooked.
So now, even if our chickens don't come from Bresse, we can treat them the same way.
I
N FRANCE, THE LAND OF PEDIGREED CHICKENS
(chickens are often bought by breed at the market), a roast chicken is a beloved staple—it's the most traditional dish for Sunday lunch. Yet the country's little secret is that often home cooks don't even roast the birds themselves: they buy them hot off the butcher's rotisserie, and the small potatoes that are cooked on the drip tray under the chicken are included. Still, I've never met a French cook who can't roast a chicken; I just haven't met one who fussed over her prowess.
And if, like me, the cook follows the lead of one of France's greatest chefs, Joël Robuchon, prowess is unnecessary. The chef advises turning the chicken during its roast and then letting it rest just about standing on its head so that the juices return to the breast, the part that cooks fastest and is usually the driest. The method, which is easy—except for the part where you have to turn the bird over (I use silicone mitts)—produces a remarkably moist chicken.
The hurry-up part is the high temperature at which the chicken cooks; the wait part is the rest period, the 15 minutes or so during which the bird does a headstand. Whatever you do, don't skip the wait—it makes all the difference in the juciness of the breasts.
If you want to add herbs or roast vegetables along with the bird, take a look at Bonne Idée for a few tips.
| About 2 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted), at room temperature, 2 tablespoons olive oil, or a combination, plus (optional) 1 tablespoon cold butter if making the sauce | |
| 1 | chicken, about 4 pounds, preferably organic, at room temperature |
| Salt and freshly ground pepper | |
| ¾-1 | cup water or a combination of water and dry white wine |
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Choose a suitable pan—a metal roasting pan, a cast-iron skillet, or a Dutch oven—what's important is that it be sturdy and, unless you're roasting vegetables along with the chicken, not oversized. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan with some of the butter and/or oil.
Tie the chicken's legs together and fold the wings back, then rub the remaining butter and/or oil over the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Put the chicken on its side in the pan and roast undisturbed for 25 minutes. Turn the bird over onto its other side: if you have silicone mitts or silicone pot holders, grab them for the job; if not, use two wooden spoons or a pair of pancake turners. Give the chicken another 25 minutes in the oven. For the final flip, turn it onto its back and roast it, breast side up, for another 10 minutes, or until the skin is golden and the juices run clear when you pierce the thickest part of the thigh with the tip of a knife.
While the chicken is finishing up in the oven, prepare for its resting headstand: have at the ready a platter or a rimmed dish that can hold the bird comfortably and a small bowl.
Pull the pan from the oven and transfer the chicken, breast side down, to the platter. Lift the chicken's tail in the air, slide the bowl under it, and balance the bird so that it's resting at an angle. Cover the chicken loosely with aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 to 20 minutes so that the juices can resettle themselves in the breast.
If you'd like to make a little sauce, spoon the fat off the liquid in the pan, put the pan over medium heat, and add the water or water and wine, scraping up whatever solids have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Boil the sauce for a few minutes, taste, and season with salt and pepper. If you'd like, cut the tablespoon of cold butter into bits and, off the heat, swirl it into the sauce.
Carve the chicken and serve it with the sauce, if you made it.
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
SERVING
If you were having this chicken in France on a Sunday afternoon, you'd face a mutiny if you didn't serve it with roasted potatoes (see Bonne Idée), but if you're in any other country, or it's any other day, feel free to accompany it with any kind of vegetable or even just a salad of mixed greens, preferably some with character.
STORING
Cooled to room temperature and well wrapped, the leftover chicken makes great sandwiches, salads, or snacks the following day.
BONNE IDÉE
There are so many ways you can play around with roast chicken. To get you started, think about putting a small bouquet of fresh herbs and a few wedges of lemon or orange inside it before roasting (a few garlic cloves are nice too); working some herb butter under the skin, pressing on the softened butter so that it covers the breast and the chubby part of the thighs; and/or surrounding the chicken with some vegetables. If you're going to add vegetables to the roasting pan, it's best to keep them small and to slice them so they are all about the same size. I like to add small potatoes (or potatoes cut into small chunks), carrot slices, small onions, and mushrooms. I toss them in olive oil so that they're glossy, season them with salt and freshly ground pepper, and often mix sprigs of fresh herbs with them as well. Scatter them around the chicken, taking care not to crowd the pan—remember you need room to turn the chicken—and be sure to add a little water or wine so that the vegetables don't stick before the chicken starts letting go of some of its juices.