(By the way, I went back and added some photos to my last post, including a teensy tiny baby hand, aw!)
If you read Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn, you may have seen a complete rave review of a Jamie Oliver recipe for chicken braised in milk, with lemon, sage and cinnamon. I have been burned several times by classic italian pork-in-milk recipes, but for some reason I had to go out and make the chicken version immediately. The writer, Faith, accidentally misread the recipe and covered the chicken for 2/3 of the cooking time, then tested it uncovered and preferred the covered version, so I followed her lead.
Here’s the recipe, from Jamie.
I think the ingredients look like a still-life–maybe I should paint them!
Though things aren’t as scenic if you zoom out:
The recipe is seriously easy. I hate hate hate cooking chicken, especially whole chickens, but the braising aspect made me more comfortable. The most annoying part is browning the chicken in the butter and oil, since it’s awkward to flip it around in the pan.
In an hour and a half of unsupervised (mostly) cooking, this unappetizing sight:
Turned into this:
I have never had crispier skin on a roast chicken; not sure why. The fat rendered out of it completely. And I’ll add my voice to those of Faith and Jamie in saying not to freak out at that curdled sauce. It tastes amazing. The first night we had shredded meat on rolls, as little sandwiches:
And the next night we had more of it (with that delicious, nasty-looking sauce) with israeli cous cous and sauteed greens:
We ate the meat for about a week, and it was scrumptious hot or cold. I’ll definitely make it again, maybe omitting the cinnamon if I want slightly more versatile leftovers, though it gave a really nice musky flavor. It hurts to use a whole stick of butter to brown the chicken and then toss it out, but I saved mine in a pyrex in the fridge, so maybe I could re-use it? It’s lovely browned butter now; I wonder if it would burn on a second use. Anyway, compared to dry-roasting a chicken, this method was way less stressful and gave really juicy, tender meat. As I said, I followed Faith’s lucky “mistake” and kept the pot covered for the first hour, opening it for the last 30 minutes to crisp up.
Excellent. I may give it a shot tomorrow! That first photo may make a great header, if you choose to switch things up.
Ooh, good call! I’ll do it now!
I read that same article and made that chicken right away (although I cooked it before the additional info about leaving the cover on). It was sooooo good, I might do it again tonight with your inspiration. I’m not sure where you shop, but I suspect you may be near to my favorite store, Savenor’s Market. They have some really wonderful Gianonne Chicken which is worth the extra few bucks. I made mine with some smashed fingerling potatoes the first go around, but your israeli cous cous is tempting.