Another one of those holy grail-type recipes is fried chicken, and I am bound and determined to make that one day. My grandmother makes the best in the entire world. My mother fought with it for years. And pounds and pounds of undercooked and/or burnt chicken later (and after a really, really bad burn on her hand and arm) she realized: You know what? It's just not worth it.
But I must! It's just one of those things. If you can make fried chicken from scratch, in your own home, and without a real deep-fryer, then you can pretty much make anything. I'd really have to mentally prepare for it. The oil has to be really hot and the thought of trying to put a piece of chicken in the pot and scalding my arm scares me. Just laying it out there. It's scary. Making fried chicken is scary.
But I'll get there.
I began with mentioning chicken because that's what I made today. Last weekend my wonderful mother-in-law gave me Cook's Illustrated's American Classics. It's this great book/magazine filled with recipes my grandmother used to make me: chicken-fried steak, ribs, fried fish, you name it. Those good-ole' comfort foods. It's also unique in that it provides a lot of the basic cooking know-how. For example, I didn't know that if you don't pat meat completely dry before putting it in the pan that it won't brown correctly. Or that browning is exactly what boosts flavor in meat. Or that not letting meat sit for at least five minutes after you remove it from the oven or stovetop will make it dry and tough. The book even goes into how to correctly clean and cut different types of vegetables and makes recommendations about especially good ingredients and cooking products. It's great. My husband likes it because it talks about all the science in cooking. It's a winner winner, chicken dinner. Funny! That's what we had tonight.
THE MISSION: Old-Fashioned Chicken in a Pot
THE INGREDIENTS: 1 whole chicken (4.5 - 5 pounds) trimmed of excess fat, S&P, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 onion peeled and halved with the root end left intact, 1 celery rib halved crosswise, 1 pound carrots peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces, 6 medium garlic cloves minced, 1 cup dry white wine, 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth, 1.5 pounds small red potatoes quartered, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives.
I skipped the celery and here's why: I don't eat celery unless it's part of a dish. And I wasn't going to buy a gigantic package of celery to use 1 piece of it. Believe me, the dish wasn't missing a piece of celery. The recipe has you throw it out after cooking anyway! I also couldn't find a chicken as big as the recipe called for. The one pictured above was just under 4 pounds and the cooking time was the same. Use what you can find.
The beginning of the recipe notes that you'll need at least a 6-quart Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid and kitchen twine to make this meal. Luckily, I found a whole chicken that had already been tied off by the butcher, so I didn't need to pick up any kitchen twine. I have a feeling most whole chickens are already tied off, and the kitchen twine didn't really get in the way of flavoring the chicken before cooking it.
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Using fingers, loosen skin from breasts and legs of chicken. Rub 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper all over the chicken and underneath skin. Tuck wings behind back and tie legs together with kitchen twine.
Behold. That's my hand under the chicken's skin. I'm not embarrassed to admit that this is my very first time handling a whole chicken, let alone sticking my hand under that poor (delicious) animal's skin. I just kind of did it and tried not to think about the cute little gal walking around the hen house all happy-go-lucky. Dealing with animal meat is just a weird experience. My husband and I have a friend who skinned a whole lamb once. Craziness.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken, breast side up, and cook until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes.
Here's why this cookbook is so great. It explains why exactly you're just browning one side of the chicken for 4 minutes. And it's really interesting (or at least I think it is) so I'm going to share it with you. Dark meat (what's on the underside of the chicken - the side that's getting browned in the picture above) takes longer to cook through than the delicate white meats. By browning it, you're getting the cooking process started early on that one side. If you didn't do this step, by the time the dark meat was cooked through and tender, the white meat would be tough and completely dried out. As you'll see from the rest of the recipe in just a second here, this chicken will eventually end up in the oven getting steamed away by a glorious combination of chicken stock, wine, and vegetable aromatics (the book's word, not mine). Both the white and dark meat end up tender and delicious. So now you know. If you're going to roast or steam a whole chicken, brown the dark meat side for a few minutes first.
Transfer chicken to a plate. Add remaining oil, onion, celery, and carrots to empty Dutch oven and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add wine and broth and bring to a boil. Arrange chicken, breast side up, on top of vegetables. Season potatoes with S&P and arrange around chicken.
Here's another interesting piece of advice. By placing the chicken on top of all of the vegetables, you prevent it from overcooking. The vegetables keep the chicken away from the very hot bottom of the pan while letting it cook through from the steam of the liquids in the Dutch oven. The vegetables also flavor the chicken while it's cooking.
Isn't this cooking stuff interesting?!
Transfer Dutch oven to oven and cook, covered, until thigh meat registers 170 to 175 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 50 to 70 minutes. Remove Dutch oven from oven and transfer to wire rack. Remove lid and tent Dutch oven loosely with foil; let rest 20 minutes.
That's what it looked like when the foil came off. She was all like: Eat me please. I'm delicious.
Carefully transfer chicken to carving board. Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to serving platter, discarding the onion and celery.
Here's one thing I didn't get. Onions are best when they're roasted. I get that the recipe has you add one to the pot to add to the overall flavor of the chicken and vegetables. But I think it would have been better to have some of the roasted onion in the vegetable mixture.
Let sit for 5 minutes, then strain and skim sauce (about 2 cups; if less, supplement with chicken broth). Whisk butter and chives into sauce and season with S&P to taste.
Carve chicken and serve, passing sauce at table.
MISSION COMPLETE:
DEBRIEFING: The chicken was the most tender chicken I've ever had. I only had the white meat, but my husband said the dark meat was just as tender. He actually said it was the best chicken he's ever had. And if you don't know him, he's really not the humoring type. It made my day. And this is why I follow recipes so closely! Everything (usually) pans out!
The sauce was buttery, like heaven. It wasn't thick like a gravy, just a light buttery sauce that we poured over the chicken meat and all of the vegetables.
It was my first time handling a whole chicken and it was my husband's first time carving a whole chicken. That-there Google and YouTube sure come in handy. You can find anything and everything on there. All he did was put 'carving a whole chicken' into the query field and there popped up hundreds of videos that walk you through step-by-step. He did a really good job, too.
Another smashing success that only required 1 pot to make. Splendid.
The meal ended with this:
Carrot cake. My favorite.
Tomorrow's Monday. Back to the grind.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Rachel
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