Lordy me, Mama’s in the kitchen, cookin’ chicken! Now in the south that would mean the southern fried kind, but we’ll save that for another day. No, today we’re going to talk about simplest of meals, a roasted chicken. If you need dinner in a hurry, for family or guests, this is your fall-off-a-log, fallback plan. (My mother, who was in the I-hate-to-cook club, once burst out laughing when she learned I was roasting a chicken for a big family dinner. "Even I can make that!" she said).
Which got me to thinking, how do French cooks roast a chicken? Surely they’re full of closed guarded family secrets, recettes from mère or grand-mère. I decided to ask my resident experts, the Lyon Ladies.
If you read this blog you know the Lyon Ladies are a group of French femmes that our châtelaine Nicole has been teaching English to weekly for years. And these ladies sure can cook. So, recently, I asked Nicole to post the question to them.
Their reply: French shrug.
They all agreed on the same basic recipe, which is pretty much the same thing I do: you put the poulet in the oven on high heat to brown, lower the heat after 20 minutes or so, and cook until done. Maybe you throw some cut up potatoes and carrots in the bottom of the pan. And baste often. Nothing exotic about that! Sometimes when you think there might be a cultural gap, you discover that some things, tried and true, really do fly around the world.
They did have a few small astuces (tips) to add, however. “If you cook a really good, farm-raised, grain-fed chicken,” said Lyon Lady Eliane, “you don’t NEED to do anything special to it. Let the taste of the chicken be the star." And especially, I might add, if it’s a Poulet de Bresse, which everyone knows is the best chicken in France (i.e., the world), and which have, for reasons unknown, blue feet. “For a lower quality chicken”, added Giselle, “you might add some herbes de provence.”
Ah, but Nicole has some French tricks up her sleeve. “I use a recipe that’s been in our family for a long time. Rub the outside of the chicken with some thyme. Then cut up some good bread, mostly the crusts, into large chunks and you rub them all over with cut garlic gloves and stuff them in the chicken. It makes a very simple tasty stuffing.”
This reminded me, too, that in Paris on the Place de Mexico they make the best rotisserie chickens ever, with a deep golden skin, very spicy. I asked Monsieur about the spices he uses. “Just herbes de Provence,” he shrugged. “But LOTS of herbes de Provence, that’s the secret.” I now rub my chickens with oil and lemon juice and rub in a couple of tablespoons of the dried herbs.
These days I'm mostly a vegetarian (I'm a die-hard animal lover) and only cook chicken for my husband. But I NEVER buy a factory farmed chicken--they live a life of torture. Only a reputable organic, free-range chicken farm for me. And as Eliane says, they taste better too.
A close friend here who is Dutch has a son, Rudy, who lives in Asia. He’s a great cook in his own right and his good friend and cooking buddy who lived next door is a Michelin starred chef in Beijing. So I put my question to him, and got this recipe in return.
So, there IS more than one way to skin a chicken. His is a really sassy, show-off recipe when you’ve got guests coming. I tried it--divine! And it has a French connection: it’s stuffed with Boursin cheese (created by a Frenchman named François Boursin, in 1963, in case you were wondering). Thanks, Rudy, for this lovely recipe.
RECIPE: Roast Chicken, Rudy Style
"A 5 pound chicken or however big you like your birds!!!
For the brine:
- 1 gallon cold water
- 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
- 12 bay leaves
- 1 head of garlic, smashed but not peeled
- 2 tablespoons black peppercorns
- 3 large rosemary sprigs
- 1 small bunch of thyme
- 1 small bunch of parsley
- 2 lemons roughly chopped
For the stuffing :
- 1 packet of boursin ( herb flavour – although other flavours are great too)
- 1 lemon
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 2 sprigs parsley
- 3 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- salt and pepper
Method
In a very large pot, combine 1 quart of the water with 1 cup of the salt and the honey, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme and parsley. Add the lemon zest and juice and the lemon halves and bring to a simmer over moderate heat, stirring until the salt is dissolved. Let cool completely, then stir in the remaining 3 quarts of cold water. Add the chickens, being sure they're completely submerged, and refrigerate overnight.
Drain the chicken and pat dry. Scrape off any herbs or peppercorns stuck to the skin.
Place sprigs of thyme, rosemary and parsley and a lemon chopped into four into the inside of the cavity of the chicken and season generously with salt and pepper.
Gently ease the skin off the breast, taking care not to tear the skin. Take the boursin and stuff it underneath the skin making sure to push the boursin as far as it will go (towards the back of the chicken).
Season the top of the skin as well and rub the skin with a small amount of butter.
Place in a 450 degree oven (220C) . After 20 minutes if the skin is browning too quickly. Place a sheet of aluminium foil over the top of the breast meat to protect it. After 40 minutes, check the temperature of the bird by inserting an instant read thermometer between the leg and the thigh : the temperature should read 155 F (68C). The chicken will continue to cook as it sits, reaching a temperature of 165F (74C) .
Serve with whatever you want! Roast vegetables, a crisp green salad
or whatever takes your fancy.
Happy eating!"
Rudy
Here are some more ideas for roasting chicken from Southern Fried French.
