Roasted Chicken - 'Think Like a Chef', Tom Colicchio
A roasted chicken dinner is one of my favorite comfort foods. Growing up this was a meal I always looked forward to on a Sunday night. My mom’s chicken
dinner typically included corn and what I personally think are the world’s greatest mashed potatoes. My mom used a classic preparation for roasted chicken.
She’d used a roasting pan and cooked the chicken in a 375 degree oven for about an hour or so. And I believe she used salt and pepper and a little basting
and that was it. And honestly th’t's all you really needed. The result was a well flavored roasted chicken. However sometimes it would result in the breast meat
being a bit drier in the breast mear. It didn’t bother me because in addition to my mom’s mashed potatoes I also love her gravy. I also ate a lot of dark meat as
a kid, still do.
In my own home I have tried several versions of mom’s classic trying to deal with the challenge of completely cooking the dark meat without drying out the
breast. I have rubbed the chicken in herb butter, brined it and even stuffed it with lemons. The herb butter was very tasty but not the healthiest option. The brine
works well but involves some planning ahead. And frankly I wasn’t crazy about the lemons. I’m a traditionalist in terms of roasted chicken flavor and the lemon
is far from traditional in my mind.
You probably know Chef Colicchio from the cooking show Top Chef on Bravo. He is also the former executive chef of Gramery Tavern and now heads his own
expanding restaurant empire Craft. I don’t think it’s a coincidence but Roasted Chicken is the first recipe you’ll find in Think Like a Chef. The book is
segmented by cooking method instead of the more traditional layout by course. The thing I really like about this book is that it’s more of an instruction manual
of how to cook food properly then it is a collection of recipes. Following this recipe I learned a new method to cook a roasted chicken.
The process starts the same by preheating the oven to 375 and drying the chicken with paper towels before salting and peppering. A dry chicken is key to
ensure a crispy skin. I always try to truss my chicken. It’s very simple as long as you have some butcher’s twine on hand. The classic method involves sewing
the bird shut but I was relieved to see that even Colicchio doesn’t go to those lengths. Trussing keeps the bird tightly compacted and lifts the legs to ensure
that the thighs cook through. For this method trussing is even more important. So far this process has been pretty straight forward but here’s the twist. The
next step involves heating peanut oil in a large saute pan and then pan roasting the chicken on the stovetop. I had never heard of this process for a whole
chicken. Each side is cooked for about 7 minutes to brown. Since the chicken is trussed itss much easier to move around without the legs flopping all over the
place. Once the chicken as been browned the pan is placed into the oven for about 20 minutes. Butter is added to the pan and another 30 minutes of cooking
till the chicken is done. The final key is to allow the chicken to rest. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the bird resulting a very moist chicken.
There were many advantages to this method in my opinion. The first was the moisture of the white meat. By pan roasting I found more even cooking without
drying out the breast. The skin also gets very crispy with this method. Lastly the pan juices seemed much richer for making gravy. I deglazed the pan with
some Madera wine, chicken stock and reduced.
I highly recommend this method and Tom Colicchio’s book, “Think Like a Chef”. By the way, to this day I still haven’t made my own mashed potatoes. I just
don’t think I’d be able to compete with the real thing. Instead we just had some roasted broccoli and cauliflower with bacon and garlic.
A roasted chicken dinner is one of my favorite comfort foods. Growing up this was a meal I always looked forward to on a Sunday night. My mom’s chicken
dinner typically included corn and what I personally think are the world’s greatest mashed potatoes. My mom used a classic preparation for roasted chicken.
She’d used a roasting pan and cooked the chicken in a 375 degree oven for about an hour or so. And I believe she used salt and pepper and a little basting
and that was it. And honestly th’t's all you really needed. The result was a well flavored roasted chicken. However sometimes it would result in the breast meat
being a bit drier in the breast mear. It didn’t bother me because in addition to my mom’s mashed potatoes I also love her gravy. I also ate a lot of dark meat as
a kid, still do.
In my own home I have tried several versions of mom’s classic trying to deal with the challenge of completely cooking the dark meat without drying out the
breast. I have rubbed the chicken in herb butter, brined it and even stuffed it with lemons. The herb butter was very tasty but not the healthiest option. The brine
works well but involves some planning ahead. And frankly I wasn’t crazy about the lemons. I’m a traditionalist in terms of roasted chicken flavor and the lemon
is far from traditional in my mind.
You probably know Chef Colicchio from the cooking show Top Chef on Bravo. He is also the former executive chef of Gramery Tavern and now heads his own
expanding restaurant empire Craft. I don’t think it’s a coincidence but Roasted Chicken is the first recipe you’ll find in Think Like a Chef. The book is
segmented by cooking method instead of the more traditional layout by course. The thing I really like about this book is that it’s more of an instruction manual
of how to cook food properly then it is a collection of recipes. Following this recipe I learned a new method to cook a roasted chicken.
The process starts the same by preheating the oven to 375 and drying the chicken with paper towels before salting and peppering. A dry chicken is key to
ensure a crispy skin. I always try to truss my chicken. It’s very simple as long as you have some butcher’s twine on hand. The classic method involves sewing
the bird shut but I was relieved to see that even Colicchio doesn’t go to those lengths. Trussing keeps the bird tightly compacted and lifts the legs to ensure
that the thighs cook through. For this method trussing is even more important. So far this process has been pretty straight forward but here’s the twist. The
next step involves heating peanut oil in a large saute pan and then pan roasting the chicken on the stovetop. I had never heard of this process for a whole
chicken. Each side is cooked for about 7 minutes to brown. Since the chicken is trussed itss much easier to move around without the legs flopping all over the
place. Once the chicken as been browned the pan is placed into the oven for about 20 minutes. Butter is added to the pan and another 30 minutes of cooking
till the chicken is done. The final key is to allow the chicken to rest. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the bird resulting a very moist chicken.
There were many advantages to this method in my opinion. The first was the moisture of the white meat. By pan roasting I found more even cooking without
drying out the breast. The skin also gets very crispy with this method. Lastly the pan juices seemed much richer for making gravy. I deglazed the pan with
some Madera wine, chicken stock and reduced.
I highly recommend this method and Tom Colicchio’s book, “Think Like a Chef”. By the way, to this day I still haven’t made my own mashed potatoes. I just
don’t think I’d be able to compete with the real thing. Instead we just had some roasted broccoli and cauliflower with bacon and garlic.
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Hudson Valley Food Finds
