Chicken texture… Roasting v. poaching v. boiling…

A few weeks ago we were, as you do, discussing chicken flesh…

My son made the point that if you poach the whole chicken, covered in liquid, as you would to make Avgolemono soup for example, or a classic Jewish chicken soup, the flesh of the chicken is very soft and almost, as he put it, slimy – although it is, of course, very moist and will have absorbed many of the flavours of the vegetables and stock in which you have cooked it. If you roast it, on the other hand, you get much more texture and chewiness in the flesh and a much more concentrated ‘chicken’ flavour, although, of course, you risk it drying out.

The classic way to avoid it drying out is to ‘French Roast’ – certainly my favourite way of roasting chicken or turkey. To ‘go French’ you put a layer of chopped vegetables (any of those that you would normally use to make stock) in the bottom of the roasting tin and sit the bird on a rack above them. Then fill the roasting tin 2/3 of the way up with either water or stock, cover the bird lightly with some foil and roast as normal. During the course of the roasting the liquid will ‘steam up’ into the chicken keeping its flesh moist while still allowing the heat of the oven to dry it out enough to concentrate the flavour.

However, although you do get some delicious juices in the bottom of the pot that can be converted into yummy ‘instant’ gravy, you do not get all that utterly scrumptious stock which can be turned into the most wonderful soup. So I wondered if once could actually manage to combine the two methods, thus getting the moist and juicy virtues of the submerged chicken with the drier, more concentrated texture and flavour of a roast chicken. So, in the recipe below, that will also appear in next w/e’s Foodsmatter newsletter, I half submerged the chicken – and half submerged some corn on the cob for good measure – and I thought that it worked rather well…. Any further input, however, would be appreciated.

NB The recipe is, naturally, everything-free…

 

FreeFrom roast/braised chicken with sweet corn
Dairy, egg, gluten, lactose, nightshade, nut, soy and wheat free

Serves 4

2 small onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 stick celery, finely chopped
6 open mushrooms, finely chopped
1 heaped tsp black peppercorns
1 large sprig fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 medium size chicken to serve 4
300ml/10 floz dry white wine
approx 600ml/20floz gluten and wheat-free stock
2 corn on the cob, cut in half
2 rashers of fat back bacon

Heat the oven to 160C/300F/Gas mark 3.
Put the onions, garlic, celery, mushrooms, peppercorns and thyme into an ovenproof casserole which will hold the chicken with a reasonable amount of space to spare.
Sit the chicken on top and tuck the corn cobs down the side of the chicken.
Pour the wine round the chicken and then pour enough of the stock to come 2/3 of the way up the sides of the chicken. The corn should be floating in the stock.
Lay the bacon over the breast of the chicken and lay a piece of foil over the top.
Bake for 2 hours, turning the corn cobs in the stock once or twice. They should be cooked in the juices but slightly crispy, crunchy and caramelised on the exposed side.
Remove the foil and return to the oven to allow the breast and bacon to crisp up. Cook for another 30 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning of the juice to taste if they need it then serve the chicken with some of the the juices and cooking vegetables, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes or rice and a green vegetable.

Use the remaining cooking juices and vegetables, the carcass of the chicken and some extra water to make earth-shatteringly delicious stock, from which you can then make even more earth-shatteringly delicious soup…
(For inspiration see our hundreds of soup recipes.)