I TRUSS A CHICKEN
I'll get back to the title of my post in a minute. First, let me show this pictures to Katie (the only one who will truly appreciate it). That's right. Tom bought me a jar of Ortiz's Big Papi Salsa. He then proceeded to eat most of it himself. ( I had a little. I'll admit I finished off the bag of corn chips that went with the salsa.) It wasn't too bad. Kinda sweet, but you could identify the chunks of corn and black beans. Now maybe we can all hit a ball like Big Papi.
Ok, back to the title of this post. I decided I wanted to try out this simple recipe for a Roast Chicken by Thomas Keller. The recipe is in his Boucon cookbook, but it's also posted online on the epicurious site. Now, I've made a bunch of roast chickens over my lifetime. But this one promised to have the simplest preparation with the crunchiest skin. I was skeptical about it at first. You don't add any type of fat to the chicken. You don't even baste it. You bascially dry it really well, stick it in an oven at high heat ane leave it alone. The idea is that you don't want to add liquid which would cause the chicken to steam, rather than cookup crisply. Also the chicken skin adds a natural barrier to prevent moisture from escaping. I've always rubbed the chicken skin with something, be it butter or olive oil, to keep the chicken moist, but I thought I'd give this a shot. After all, who am I to question Thomas Keller?
Because this recipe required so little stuff, it was important for me to stick to the recipe. We went out to Whole Foods and bought a 3.5 pound organic chicken. And we also bought some kitchen string for me to truss the chicken. Now, I've never trussed a chicken before, but Keller says that you really should do it, since it helps the chicken to cook more evenly. Reading the comment section of the Epicurious website, I learned that you could find a video of how to acorn squash and rutabaga puree using this recipe. It was simple and turned out quite well. The sweetness of the acorn squash really helped to mellow the sharper flavors of the rutabaga.
But onto the bird. I stuck it in the oven, and left it alone, just like Thomas Keller told me to. And 50 minutes, it came out prefectly cooked and a crispy, golden brown. I did leave it on the rack when I cooked it in the oven, again, hoping the air would circulate beneath and keep the skin crisp. That skin really was crispy (though less so after I basted it with the pan juices). And the meat was juicy and perfectly cooked. This really was one of the bet roasted chickens I have ever made. No kidding. The only problem was that it did smoke and create a little havoc in the kitchen. We had to open the door to air it all out and get the fan going. But other people had had the same problem, so I'll check the comments section again the next time I make this to avoid the smoke.
I'll get back to the title of my post in a minute. First, let me show this pictures to Katie (the only one who will truly appreciate it). That's right. Tom bought me a jar of Ortiz's Big Papi Salsa. He then proceeded to eat most of it himself. ( I had a little. I'll admit I finished off the bag of corn chips that went with the salsa.) It wasn't too bad. Kinda sweet, but you could identify the chunks of corn and black beans. Now maybe we can all hit a ball like Big Papi.
Ok, back to the title of this post. I decided I wanted to try out this simple recipe for a Roast Chicken by Thomas Keller. The recipe is in his Boucon cookbook, but it's also posted online on the epicurious site. Now, I've made a bunch of roast chickens over my lifetime. But this one promised to have the simplest preparation with the crunchiest skin. I was skeptical about it at first. You don't add any type of fat to the chicken. You don't even baste it. You bascially dry it really well, stick it in an oven at high heat ane leave it alone. The idea is that you don't want to add liquid which would cause the chicken to steam, rather than cookup crisply. Also the chicken skin adds a natural barrier to prevent moisture from escaping. I've always rubbed the chicken skin with something, be it butter or olive oil, to keep the chicken moist, but I thought I'd give this a shot. After all, who am I to question Thomas Keller?
Because this recipe required so little stuff, it was important for me to stick to the recipe. We went out to Whole Foods and bought a 3.5 pound organic chicken. And we also bought some kitchen string for me to truss the chicken. Now, I've never trussed a chicken before, but Keller says that you really should do it, since it helps the chicken to cook more evenly. Reading the comment section of the Epicurious website, I learned that you could find a video of how to acorn squash and rutabaga puree using this recipe. It was simple and turned out quite well. The sweetness of the acorn squash really helped to mellow the sharper flavors of the rutabaga.
But onto the bird. I stuck it in the oven, and left it alone, just like Thomas Keller told me to. And 50 minutes, it came out prefectly cooked and a crispy, golden brown. I did leave it on the rack when I cooked it in the oven, again, hoping the air would circulate beneath and keep the skin crisp. That skin really was crispy (though less so after I basted it with the pan juices). And the meat was juicy and perfectly cooked. This really was one of the bet roasted chickens I have ever made. No kidding. The only problem was that it did smoke and create a little havoc in the kitchen. We had to open the door to air it all out and get the fan going. But other people had had the same problem, so I'll check the comments section again the next time I make this to avoid the smoke.
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