French Chicken in a Pot, Cook's Illustrated [Pictures]

LTHForum,

French Chicken in a Pot called to me, staid Cook's Illustrated stringing succulent, bursting, concentrated chicken flavor was more than this chicken loving fool could resist. Lucky I get weak in the knees where poultry is concerned, as the CI Dutch oven method yielded moist tender intensely flavored flesh and light bright pan juice that, with the recommended addition of fresh lemon juice, was a palate pleasing plate of poultry.

French Chicken in a Pot
Cook's Illustrated, January - February 2008

Basic recipe is dead simple, brown chicken on stove top with garlic, celery and onion, cover and place in 250 degree oven for 80 +- minutes, depending on chicken size. My 4-1/2 pound chicken in a 5-quart Dutch oven took 100 minutes.

100 minutes of covered Dutch oven roasting


Strain juices, press to capture every last drop of goodness


Not a bad looking bird


With Couscous and Roasted broccoli



I should note Roasted broccoli, from the same issue of Cook's Illustrated, was not as successful as French Chicken and will necessitate further tweaking on my part.

French Roast Chicken recipe may be found here

Enjoy,
Gary

Looks delicious. Roasted chicken can be one of the best foods when it turns out well.

I made a roasted chicken last week mainly following Thomas Keller's roasting instructions, but cooking it on a bed of onion, carrots, garlick, and thyme. Turned out really, really well. I do have some pictures if you are interested in seeing.

We grabbed the issue last night, as that recipe amongst other things sounded interesting.

I think this is as good as time as any to plug live chickens. In our efforts to eat local, we found the localist food outside of our front yard apple tree, and that's live chicken at the corner of Central and Fullerton (John's). You cannot believe how much a difference a live bird makes. Yes it is juicy, but where you really notice the difference is in the skin. Because it has not been even partially frozen, it retains a full crisping ability. It's really worth the squeamishness*.

There are a few live chicken places still extant in Chicago. I believe there is one on Armitage in the Humbolt Park area, there's one on Western just north of Devon, and Ronnie Suburban mentioned to me that there is one in Glenview. See and taste for yourself.

*I should note that unless desired, you do not have to watch, nor even pick the bird that gets done. You will have to deal with an item that is still warm though. Obviously, you get the WHOLE chicken. I do bring home the neck and feet, having them chop for me, to use in stock.

Vital Information wrote:*I should note that unless desired, you do not have to watch, nor even pick the bird that gets done. You will have to deal with an item that is still warm though. Obviously, you get the WHOLE chicken. I do bring home the neck and feet, having them chop for me, to use in stock.

Thanks for the info. I fear that, for the moment, that cuts a little too close to home for me. (I think it's the warmness that did me in, although I certainly wouldn't have wanted to pick the ill-fated bird, either.)

There's also live poultry place (sign says prominently "Pollos Vivos") on Chicago Ave between Ashland and Paulina (I believe) on the North side of the street. Can't vouch for anything there - but I thought I'd offer it up as an option for anyone looking for something closer to the center of town.

Gary - your chicken looks great. I forgot about that issue of Cook's Illustrated - I'll have to dig it out and give it a try.

I also drove by a live poultry place in Little Village / Pilsen area on I *think* 26th street. Maybe someone else can verify the exat location. I was primarily looking for a cart tamale vendor in rush hour, so I was not as interested in remembering the exact corner the store was on. I was more interested in being able to pull over for tamales without causing an accident involving four cars.

Anyway, to add, I always love the ease to reward ratio of roasting chickens. I just bought about 10 chix last week @ 69c/lb specifically for the long winter months ahead. On the days I can plan to get home from work early, or on the weekends, I'll butterfly, and then rub them and roast over aromatics with lemon juice , and a good splash of white wine. The veggies cooked in the drippins are always outta this world. I don't brown it 1st, but I still get a juicy bird with a crunchy skinned coating. Only real issue is, when you stock up when they're on sale, it takes a few days to thaw in the fridge - have to plan accordingly. Did one last week, and added a new vegetable - The Parsnip. meh. Pretty dull. Next time, perhaps a rutabaga...

Gary - lovely bird. Your (offsite) recipe calls for a 259 degree oven, the first time I've ever seen that specified. Cooks is certainly fussy, but usually not that much - should it be 250 as posted in this thread?

Santander wrote:should it be 250 as posted in this thread?

Yes, thanks for catching the typo, now changed.

Vital Information wrote:There are a few live chicken places still extant in Chicago.

Live poultry:

Ciale’s Poultry Store
2141 W Armitage
773-278-1118
Fresh Geese

Chicago Live Poultry and Grocery
6421 N Western
773-973-2531

John's Live Poultry and Egg Market
5955 W Fullerton
773-622-2813
Fresh Geese

Harrison's Poultry Farm Inc
1201 Waukegan Rd
Glenview, IL 60025
847-724-0132

Chicago Live Poultry House
2601 S Ridgeway
773-542-9451

G Wiv wrote:Harrison's Poultry Farm Inc
1201 Waukegan Rd
Glenview, IL 60025
847-724-0132

There are no live chickens here. This is just a poultry store. I think that Harrison's owns a farm, but I've never found anyting sold in their store to be anyting out of the ordinary. I went there once looking for a duck and all they had were the same frozen ones as the Jewel.

I also made this recipe last week. It was the one that called to me from this issue as well.

I found it moist and quite flavorful. Some folks on the Cook's Illustrated bulletin board thought the bird was bland and saw no benefit to this over a standard roasted chicken.

I see a bunch of them:

• ease of preparation: Something like 7 ingredients. Hard to beat that
• ease of clean up: One pot, one gravy strainer, zero mess
• very juicy bird
• good flavor: I shouldn't list this 4th, but having an easy-to-clean-up juicy roast chicken recipe without fuss is what differentiates this, IMO. I took time to season the bird inside and out with S & P and mine was anything but bland. The jus was extremely flavorful with garlic, aromats, rosemary and lemon all accenting the succulent bird
• the schmaltz braised garlic cloves were the best thing I'd eaten in weeks

Best part about this is I see it as a successful technique which would be adaptable to a number of other flavor combinations.

Beautiful bird, Gary. And I'll bet it was delicious. Mine sure was. I look forward to experimenting again soon.

G Wiv wrote:

Vital Information wrote:There are a few live chicken places still extant in Chicago.

Live poultry:
. . .

In addition to the older poulterers still in business, some new ones have recently opened in the city.

Fermin's on Pulaski


Wing Ho on 26th


Here's a more current list of live poultry shops in Chicago, though I'd be surprised if it was completely up to date.

Chicago Live Poultry
6421 N Western Av
Chicago
773-973-2531

Chicago Live Poultry House
2601 S Ridgeway Av
Chicago
773-542-9451

Ciale’s Poultry Store
2141 W Armitage Av
Chicago
773-278-1118

Fermin's Poultry
5932 S Pulaski Rd
Chicago
773-581-8476

John's Live Poultry
5955 W Fullerton Av
Chicago
773-622-2813

Lawrence Poultry
2741 W Lawrence Av
Chicago
773-784-9921

Windy City Poultry
4601 S Kedzie Av
Chicago
773-847-7368

Wing Ho 128 Live Poultry
244 W 26th St
Chicago
312-225-5623


A couple of poultry-related signs I like:

gastro gnome wrote:

• the schmaltz braised garlic cloves were the best thing I'd eaten in weeks

I hate to quote myself. But I made this again tonight. I have to repeat, as a public service, that these garlic cloves are exactly the sort of cook's treat that keep me coming back to the kitchen.

Schmaltz braised garlic cloves should be a way of life.

Schmaltz braised garlic cloves should be a way of life.

Every other post could be the tagline these days.

Y'aint kidding, Santander!

Went to Harrison's the other day to check it out, and got the 3 fryers for $11 - was amply warned that they'd be small, and small they were. Unfortunately, they didn't have much more flavor than grocery-store chicken, nor did the eggs (which had promising-looking specks of bedding on the outside of the shells) Stevez already pointed this out, but just wanted to add my $.02.

They did, however, have frozen turkey pinwheels (leg/thigh combo) and while I'd rather have a plain thigh, it did provide the entre to nirvanaI was craving that day...

Mhays wrote:They did, however, have frozen turkey pinwheels (leg/thigh combo) and while I'd rather have a plain thigh, it did provide the entre to nirvanaI was craving that day...

Michelle,

They sell fresh turkey thighs at Whole Foods if, like me, you want to avoid buying previously frozen meat.

I've made this dish as well, and the quality of the bird makes all of the difference. I know that sounds like a truism, but with many chicken dishes, I've been happy with chickens purchased from Costco and then brined. For a simple dish like this one, buy the best chicken you can. Bell and Evans chicken is the most delicious one that I've had so far.

FrankP wrote:I know that sounds like a truism, but with many chicken dishes, I've been happy with chickens purchased from Costco and then brined. For a simple dish like this one, buy the best chicken you can.

Frank,

Absolutely agree. Costco chickens, which I brine or give a soak in mojo criollo, are fine for the smoker, but for dead simple like French Roast Chicken, best is better.*

Enjoy,
Gary

*Talk about an amazing command of the obvious.

Bell & Evans is what made it on my plate:



The garlic cloves didn't photograph well. Tough to photograph well when you've been eaten. But other schmaltz braised goodies occupy the foreground. See that sheen!

Another unsung hero in this recipe is the jus which is tasty and sets up (gelatinizes) splendidly. Who knew that low, moist cooking was the secret to getting the most out of poultry juices?

I picked up a Pine Manor roaster at Whole Foods this weekend and tried this recipe.

While it is astoundingly easy to prepare and results in an extremely juicy, flavorful bird, I doubt this method will make my regular rotation.

Simply put, the lack of crisp, flavorful skin really takes something away from the whole roast chicken experience. Even though Cook's Illustrated is very clear about this (forgoing crisp skin for flavor), I've never really found that trade-off to be necessary or entirely worth it.

I much prefer their easy high roast chicken method, which when using a brined bird, results in a juicy, flavorful bird covered in dark, crisp skin. (Plus potatoes cooked in chicken fat are an easy byproduct in the roasting pan.)

Best,
Michael