A New Old Way to Cook Chicken

What good is having a clay baker if you’re not going to cook anything in it? So, I scoured the interweb looking for something that might make good use of my newest kitchen toy.

On about.com, I found a recipe for chicken tarragon that sounded promising. When I made the recipe, I did 1½ times the amount of the recipe because I needed six servings (Brand new to clay cooking and I’m doing it for a dinner party. I know! I’m a crazy risk taker!).

I give you the original recipe here. If you don’t feel like breaking down a whole chicken (or only like white meat), just use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (four to six of them should do the trick).

Chicken Tarragon for the Clay Cooker

• 1 frying chicken, cut in half or quarters
• ½ C chicken broth
• Juice of 1 fresh lemon (about 2 T)
• 1 T tarragon vinegar
• 1 t dried tarragon leaves
• 1½ t kosher salt
• ½ t black pepper
• 1 t Hungarian sweet paprika (thanks to my sister-in-law, I happened to have some directly from Hungary)
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ C heavy cream
• 1 T all-purpose flour

Pre-soak both top and bottom of a large clay cooker in water for at least 15 minutes. Drain. Line with parchment paper for easier clean-up. (I didn’t line with parchment because I thought the whole point was to have the darn thing get seasoned over time. Yes, there was scraping, but nothing too difficult.)

Arrange chicken, skin-side up, in the bottom of the clay cooker (I definitely had to layer them as I had a few extra breasts in the pot. But, one chicken should fit pretty nicely in a standard sized baker). Pour chicken broth down the side into the bottom. Whisk together the lemon juice and tarragon vinegar. Drizzle evenly over the chicken.

In a small bowl, stir together tarragon leaves, salt, pepper, and paprika. Sprinkle mixture over chicken pieces. Top with shallots and garlic.

Cover the clay cooker with the lid and place into a cold oven. Turn on oven to 450°. Bake about 1¼ hours, until chicken is lightly golden.

Remove chicken and cover to keep warm. Whisk flour into heavy cream. Pour juices from the bottom of the clay cooker into a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in heavy cream. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened, stirring often. Serve gravy over chicken. (So, I did the gravy a more traditionally. I heated 1 T butter and then added the flour so as to make a roux. Then, I mixed in the cream and pan juices. I just felt this would result in a better gravy.)

Results

I was skeptical—especially about the whole cold oven business. I thought for sure the skin would be mushy or that the chicken would have a boiled meat taste. Neither one happened. It was, in fact, remarkably good. Moist (I know, I know, but it wasn’t really juicy… just moist.) on the inside and skin that was tasty. It’s not crispy skin that you’d get from baking in a traditional casserole, but it’s quite nice. The paprika gave it a bit of color as well.

I am a happy convert to the clay baking way.

 

Do You Have Any Crack?

And, by crack, I mean culinary crack. And, by culinary crack, I mean epicurious.com. I realized the other day that I have seriously gone overboard with making recipes from the E lately. It’s because I’m antsy-pantsy and rather impatient.

I don’t like doing the same recipe over and over again. But, I also don’t want to spend 200 hours in the kitchen trying to get that perfect sauce (or at the very least trying not to overcook some meat bits). I’d rather go to my crack source, get a recipe that sounds tasty, and then read all of the user comments. Then, I steal from them and voila! presto change-o! people think I’m a good cook.

But, I need to stop relying on others to do my dirty work. I also need to stop relying on the computer to help me cook. What if the power went out? (And the way my lights are flickering these days, it’s a wonder we haven’t blown a fuse… have I mentioned that I can no longer run my microwave while the washer is on a spin cycle? Good times at the old ranch. Good times.)

Back to my rustic cooking: What would happen if the power went out and I couldn’t get something from epi-crack.com? Well, I wouldn’t be able to cook because my gas stove has an electric start and the microwave is already toasted from the above power outage so I guess this is a moot point.

NO! No, points that can’t speak. The real point is that I need more cookbooks. (See how nicely I turned my laziness into my buying-ness?) That’s why this turkey day weekend, I’m off to King Books in the D to get my hands on some dusty cookbooks for more ancient crockery fun. In the meantime, this is the last recipe from that crutch of a cooking web site. (Original epicurious.com recipe here.)

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Goodies

(well actually goat cheese and basil)

Chicken

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• ½ C fresh goat cheese (about 4 oz) (If you don’t have goat cheese, cream cheese would do in a pinch, but then it makes it less fancy because you have to tell your guests that their chicken boobs are stuffed with cream cheese instead of saying, “This chicken boob is stuffed with cheese from a French speaking goat.” Your choice. I’m just saying….)
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 basil leaves, shredded
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 egg, beaten to blend
• ½ C cup dry breadcrumbs
• 2 T (¼ stick) unsalted butter melted

Mushroom-Wine Sauce

• ¼ C (½ stick) unsalted butter
• ½ lb mushrooms, sliced
• ¼ C dry white wine
• ⅔ C chicken stock
• 4 T chilled unsalted butter (½ stick), cut into 4 pieces
• Salt and pepper

For chicken:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Before we get to the actual recipe, I’m going to say this: If your chicken breast is very thick, you’re going to want to slice down the middle. (Not the long way or the short way, but the hard way where you put your hand on top of the chicken and slice the entire thing so it opens like a book.) If you don’t do this, pounding your chicken is just going to turn it into chicken shreds. Such a mess chicken breast number one… such a mess.

Pound chicken between sheets of waxed paper to thickness of ¼-inch using meat mallet. (Yeah, I don’t use the wax paper. This might be part of my problem.) Pat chicken dry.

Combine cheese, green onions, and basil in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spread cheese mixture lengthwise over half of each chicken piece. Tuck short ends in. Roll chicken up, starting at one long side, into tight cylinders. Secure the heck out of the roll with toothpicks. Dip chicken in egg, allowing excess to drip into bowl. Roll in breadcrumbs, shaking off excess. (Can be prepared 4 hours ahead if you slap it in the refrigerator.)

Place chicken in 8-inch square baking dish. Pour 2 T melted butter over. Bake until cooked through, about 20 minutes. (Right. I needed a bit more… more like 45 minutes… but my chicken boobs were extra big.)

For sauce:

Meanwhile, melt ¼ C butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until tender, about 8 minutes (I did it way longer—like maybe 15-20 minutes). Add wine and boil 3 minutes (Again a bit longer, like 5 minutes total). Add stock and boil until liquid is reduced by half, about 6 minutes (Took longer than 6 minutes… but you get the idea).

Remove from heat and swirl in 4 T cold butter one piece at a time. Season sauce with salt and freshly ground pepper. Remove toothpicks from chicken. Cut rolls crosswise into ½-inch-thick rounds. Fan on plates. Serve immediately, passing sauce separately.

Results

Fabulous! (No pictures as they were all garbage.) The chicken is moist (icky, hateful word), but the butter sauce really makes it. I guess the cheese also doesn’t hurt. Putting cheese inside anything is a tasty pastime of which all Americans should be proud.

Seriously, this is an easy (weekday? maybe) recipe. And, the mushroom wine sauce is a staple for other dishes as well. It’s particularly nice on potatoes. You should give that a whirl.

Sometimes French Food Really Is Fussy

Coq au vin (French for fowl in wine) is NOT a Monday night, after work, pull it together quickly recipe. In fact, it’s an “I’m not doing anything Saturday night and really have copious amounts of time on Sunday” sort of recipe. Yes, it is labor intensive. Yes, you should be able to take a whole chicken and break it into its edible components. Yes, if you’re not careful, you might scorch your kitchen wall. But, when done well, it’s a dish to behold—rich and complex, sopping up your sauce with bread.

This recipe comes courtesy of culinary school.

 Coq au Vin

• 2-3 lb chicken or capon

Stock and Marinade

• 1 large carrot
• 1 small Spanish onion
• 2 stalks celery
• 4 gloves garlic
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1½ qts red wine
• 2 qts chicken stock
• 1 lb chicken bones, lightly browned
• 1 T chopped shallots
• 1½ oz brandy
• 2 T canola oil
• 1 T tomato paste
• 2 T flour
• 2 T butter

Garnish

• 24 pearl onions
• 3 T butter, divided
• Pinch of sugar
• 1½ C white mushrooms
• 5 oz salt pork (I used bacon)
• 1 T chopped parsley

Cut chicken into eight pieces. (Getting a whole chicken and breaking it down is the best here. You will have two breasts, two legs, two thighs, and two wings—eight pieces. The left-over bones should be just enough for the browned bones section of the recipe. A beautiful use of the entire chicken!) Marinate in red wine for 24 hours, adding diced vegetables, garlic, and bouquet garni. Remove chicken and dry pieces in a paper towel. You’re going to get some freaky looking chicken… Just warning you, be prepared:

Raw, purple chicken... yum!

Strain the marinade. Sweat the vegetables, add tomato paste, garlic, and deglaze with red wine from the marinade. Add bouquet garni and reduce to syrupy consistency. Now add the 2 qts of chicken stock, the pound of chicken bones, and simmer for 45 minutes. (You should have about 1½ qts of red stock remaining.)

Heat oil in a large pot and brown chicken. Add shallots, sweat for one more minute, and sprinkle flour, stirring. Add brandy and light. Once flame has died down, add wine stock and season with salt and pepper. (OK, I’m skittish about lighting alcohol on my stove. [There was a rather scary incident in college involving flaming coffee.] You don’t really need to do this step if you have issues with flaming food. If you taste the chicken with fire brandy and sans fire brandy side-by-side, you will be able to taste the difference. The brandy adds a depth and complexity to the dish. But, it’s still a mighty fine chicken if you don’t feel like having a fire extinguisher at the ready when you make dinner.) Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes, depending on size. (Can also be cooked in a 350° oven. Just make sure your pot is safe for the oven.)

While the chicken is simmering, peel and cook the pearl onions: Cover with water, season with salt and pepper, add a pinch of sugar and 1 T butter, and then simmer to evaporate the water. Cook to a brown color. Slice and sauté the mushrooms; let cool. Now, cut salt pork into lardoons. Blanche, pat them dry, and brown lightly; then let cool. (Here are my modifications: I did not add the onions as my husband is not a huge fan. I cooked the bacon and then used the fat to sauté the mushrooms. I then added a bit of garlic and some chopped thyme as the mushrooms are getting skinny in the hot pot. Crumbled the bacon and added it back to the mushrooms.)

When bird is cooked, lift out of sauce and place in pot suitable for serving. Add mushrooms, bacon, and onions. If sauce is not thick enough, bring back to a boil. Bind by stirring in mixed roux until sauce thickens. Wisk in 2 T butter. Strain sauce over chicken; add some chopped parsley. Can be served with pasta or with boiled or mashed potatoes.

Results

So, after all that time and effort, I overcooked the chicken. I cooked it appropriately, but instead of creating the sauce right away and putting it out to serve, I let it sit in liquid while we had our soup course. Ooops, this added time really dried out the bird—especially the breasts. I was a bit pissed at myself for the rookie mistake. (Damn you, carry over heating, damn you!)

I served it with the Madras potato recipe I have previously made, but the excessive sauce makes it perfect for mashed potatoes. (I took the picture before I added the extra sauce.)