Having a little more time available than usual, I decided to try and conquer my fears and attempt to roast a chicken again. "Poulet Poele a L'Estragon" (Casserole-roasted Chicken with Tarragon) was selected as my challenge and the adventure began. It turned out pretty good but it did prove that I still haven't "mastered the art of French cooking."
When I was a flight examiner in the U.S. Air Force, I used to tell pilots who were taking a checkride (like a driving test but in an airplane) that they should relax and remember that their checkride was supposed to be a learning experience. I would then remind them that if they learned too much then they would fail. That's kind of how I felt with this cooking project -- I learned a lot in the process but it did taste great and I don't think I failed. As you can see from the initial photo, I'm still having trouble mastering the technique for maneuvering the bird around with wooden spoons without tearing the skin. It is a cosmetic thing but it would be nice if I could keep from tearing the skin. So, here's how this adventure went.
Even though the whole chicken says it is "ready to roast" I was prepared -- I knew that there were little aliens hiding inside and first removed them. Liver, giblets, heart, snake -- who knows exactly what they are but I just disposed of them. Julia has some lovely recipes for turning them into pastes, soups, aspics, etc. -- but those remain in the category of "I'm not doing that," at least for the foreseeable future. Once the scary parts were removed from the inside, I seasoned the chicken inside with a mixture of salt, pepper, and a half teaspoon of tarrogon. A tablespoon of softened butter was then rubbed all around on the outside skin. I suppose that's done to help it brown when roasting but I think another purpose is to make the bird nice and slippery to add to the challenge of getting it ready for roasting.
For the next step I was able to use one of my new "toys" -- my brand new trussing needle! I'd previously tried trussing a chicken with a mattress needle but it just wasn't long enough but this time I was ready with the right tool. My earlier chicken post gave more details regarding trussing a chicken but basically it's tying the legs and wings into a position that looks good and provides more even cooking. The long trussing needle makes it possible to pull the string all the way through the cavity of the chicken from one side to the other. The drumstricks were pretty straight forward - under, around, through the neck area and tied together. The wings are a bit of a puzzle at first because of Julia's description to "pull the wings akimbo." Akimbo? Huh? Is that Swahili for apart, over, out, under, up, down? Thanks to Google I learned that akimbo means "with hands on hips and elbows outward." Wow, I learned a new vocabulary word! Did you? Although I've heard of "chicken fingers" I certainly didn't see any hands on this bird that could be placed on its hips but I think I figured it out. The needle went through the body, the little wingtips were pulled into what looked like a very uncomfortable position for a chicken, the needle was passed through each wingtip and tied. It looked uncomfortable but I didn't hear the bird complain.
Then it was time to move on to the challenge of browning the bird prior to roasting. Two tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil were heated to bubbling and the chicken added. This was the tricky part for me -- trying to move the chicken around with wooden spoons in a hot pan full of hot butter/oil without tearing the skin, setting the house on fire, or burning myself. It remains a little out of my comfort zone and I still haven't quite figured out the magical way of evenly browning the entire chicken. You can see in the photos down below that I did get a nice color on the top and bottom but the sides? **sigh** Looks like I'll need to keep working on that.
After it was browned on the outside, the chicken was removed and sliced onions and carrots were slowly cooked in the remaining butter/oil. Did you notice in my photos that the carrots look like celery? Yep, I forgot to get carrots and had celery in the fridge so I made a substitution. Please forgive me, Julia, but it seemed to work out okay! After they were softened up nicely, the chicken was sat on top of the cooked vegetables, a sheet of aluminum foil was laid on top of the chicken, and the pan covered with a lid. The whole thing then ended up in my preheated oven at 325 degrees. The hard part was over at this point and, for this 5 lb chicken, it just needed to relax in the oven and roast for about an hour and forty-five minutes.
Every twenty minutes or so I'd remove it from the oven for a minute and baste the chicken. It smelled really good - I love the taste and smell of taragon. The basting did give the chicken a nice color. I'm not exactly sure of why the aluminum foil was laid on top. Next time I'll probably try not using it and see what the difference is. Maybe Julia is just trying to see if I'll pay attention and do silly things? I'm guessing its on top to keep the steam that collects on the lid from dripping onto the top of the bird? If you know, please let me know in a comment -- it would be a fair trade for me telling you what akimbo means!
When the chicken was finished roasting, it was removed from the pan and set aside. The vegetables were strained out of the juice in the bottom of the pan and the juice was turned into a brown tarragon sauce. Julia made absolutely no mention of what to do with the vegetables after roasting so I suppose she just disposed of them. We didn't. We tasted them and they tasted really good so we used them as a bit of a side dish. Didn't really add color to the plate though since they were browned at this point but they were tasty. Here's some photos of the progress up to this point. (The rest of the story is below these photos, don't miss the sauce!)
The sauce was pretty simple -- two cups of broth (one chicken, one beef) were added to the liquid in the pan. A tablespoon of cornstarch was blended with two tablespoons of grape juice, two tablespoons of tarragon, and a tablespoon of softened butter. That mixture was then added to the broth/juices simmering in the pan and they were cooked over high heat until slightly thickened. That mixture was then strained through some cheesecloth to give a "clear" sauce. The sauce was tasty but not as thick as I've been used to. It ended up being sort of like an "au jus" and I'm not sure if that was where it should have been when I stopped cooking it. The leftover sauce did thicken up when cooled. Hmmmmm, maybe I should have cooked it longer? I may never know. Oh well, it did taste good!
After posing for a couple photos, the chicken was sliced and served together with some glazed onions, the roasted vegetables, and a little sauce poured over the slices. Did I mention the sauce tasted great? I love the flavor and smell of tarragon.
Now, a couple of thoughts I've had after preparing this meal. Roasting this chicken let me try some new things and it tasted pretty good. I'm not sure, however, that it tasted so good that it was worth the time it took. Sorry Julia. Maybe life is just too busy at this point but if we had to choose between one of the chicken breast recipes with their different cream sauces or one of these roasted chickens -- no contest, we'd all take the chicken breasts that were cooked earlier. Not only for the flavor but because I can prepare them much faster. That's the practical side. This chicken tasted good but it wasn't a "Wowza!" good -- I probably won't be making this one again, sorry.
Now, none of that previous paragraph means I regret having made this or that I won't roast a chicken again. I definitely learned from it and I know I'll be able to do the preparation steps progressively faster as I gain experience. At the same time, this particular preparation seemed like a lot of work for something that tasted great but wasn't a super exciting taste sensation. It did, however, make the house smell reallllllly good! If nothing else, at least I did manage to put the chicken in the pan the right way -- the breast was on top this time!
That's it for now. If you feel adventurous, give it a try. Who knows, maybe the carrots would make a big difference?
Bon Appetit!
Not only have his cooking skills inproved, so have his carving skills..