During my time at L'Academie de Cuisine, we learned how to make a delicious Roasted Chicken. While a chicken is easy to roast, it is hard
to make it good. I love making a chicken early in the week and using the meat to make other recipes. It is so versatile and you can save the bones to make a wonderful stock.
Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken (3 ½
lbs)
Mire poix
Salt
Pepper
Smashed Garlic Cloves
Herbs: thyme, sage
Butter
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 400
degrees. Remove the fat from the
chicken. Salt and pepper the cavity. Add some smashed
garlic cloves inside. Stuff it with the mire poix. Add fresh thyme
and sage. Make a compound butter with
butter, sage, thyme, salt and chopped garlic.
Insert the butter between the skin and the chicken breast and spread it
out.
Tip: Use free-range chicken.
Tie up the chicken. Close legs and tie them together. Wings down.
Center of the strings under the wings and then up across the legs and use
the end of the cartilage to tote, then around the legs and around the back and
tie. Cut the excess string. Time to roast.
Heat olive oil in a
medium nonstick pan over medium heat.
Start searing chicken on the leg, and then flip to the other leg. After searing the sides, do the back. Don’t use tongs. Use the cutting fork between the legs and the
wings.
*You can do the same thing with a
turkey.
Let the skin crust before
moving. If the pan is not hot enough,
the skin will stick. Add salt on top. Add the chicken into the oven. After 5-10 minutes, baste and turn down the
temperature to 375 degrees. Breast is on
top.
How to tell it is cooked: Put a fork in and shake. If it is not bloody, then it is ready. It is cooked when it is
165-170 degrees. (Should take about an hour and 10 minutes).
Let it rest for 1/3 of
the time you cook it. Lay it back side
down.
Remove the fat from the
drippings and bring it back to temperature.
Cut it:
Remove the legs. Remove the stuffing. Put stuffing in the pan.
Cut it in half. Remove the bone from the meat. Cut the wing at the end. Preserve the skin around it to protect. Add bones to the pan and string. Put the pieces of chicken on a cooling
rack.
Quickly sear the bones
with the stuffing. Deglaze with white
wine. Put all of that back into
drippings. Season with salt and pepper.
Make sure to reduce wine and pass through a chinois.
Serve over basmati rice with jus on top.
Photo by Emily Clack
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