Chicken – there’s nothing else like it. It’s a blank canvas waiting for you to transform it into whatever you can imagine. They say a cook is measured by their roast chicken. I don’t know if that’s true but it is a good thing to know how to do.
Back in the sixties, Julia Child first showed us how to roast a chicken on the French Chef. I sometimes wonder what life would be like if she hadn’t come along. Would we all still be eating jello with marshmallows in it?
The most important thing to consider when roasting a chicken is… the chicken. Aiir chilled, grain fed bird at a minimum. They are easy to come by these days. Why waste the time and effort only to be disappointed by the water laden, flavourless no name bird?
classic roast chicken
Ingredients
- 1 3-4 lb chicken - bigger birds work but you will need to roast longer
- olive oil
- kosher salt
- pepper
- 1/3 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 Tbsp concentrated chicken stock
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400F. Pre-heat your roasting pan in the oven as it heats up.
- Untruss your bird and rub with olive oil. Season inside and out with salt and pepper.
- Place the chicken in the pre-heated pan (this sears the bottom of the bird and prevents the skin from sticking to the pan - most of the time).
- Roast for 15-20 minutes. By now there should be enough rendered fat to baste the chicken. There’s also likely to be some bits of fond (that golden brown stuff in the bottom of the pan). Fond is essential to success so avoid spooning it onto the bird when basting - the goal is basting with chicken fat here. Keep the fond in the pan - it’s your sauce…
- Continue roasting until the breast reads 165F and the thigh reads 175F. The thigh is almost certain to be done if the breast makes it to 165F.
- Remove the chicken from the pan. Tip the pan and carefully spoon off the clear chicken fat, making sure to leave all fond and any drippings in the pan. Drippings are the brown liquid hiding under the clear fat.
- Place the pan over medium heat. Deglaze with the white wine, making sure to melt all the wonderful fond you have created. Reduce the white wine until it is almost completely gone.
- Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock and scrape any caramelized goodness that accumulates on the sides back into the pan. Reduce by about half and add the second 1/4 cup of stock. If you are using the concentrated chicken stock add it now.
- When you get back to your chicken you will see some liquid has accumulated on the cutting board. Pour this into the sauce. When you start to carve up the chicken and it gives off more liquid pour this into the sauce as well. Reduce until you have a nice viscous sauce.
Chicken stock. Bone broth. It’s a simple thing really. Making stock. Bones. A few aromatics. Water. Time. Super concentrated chicken stock is a whole different thing.
When you reduce the stock right down to a syrupy consistency it transforms into a flavour grenade ready to transform any chicken dish.
Think chicken demi-glace. If you only ever make one thing from this blog, make the concentrated chicken stock.
The best thing about this recipe is it’s dead easy. It’s even easier than regular stock. Regular chicken stock has carrots and celery you have to chop. Herbs. Peppercorns. Tomatoes even.
Concentrated chicken stock has 3 ingredients. And one of them is water. You don’t want the flavour from the aromatics and herbs.
This is about concentrating flavours. Concentrate celery and carrots in your stock and you get something horrible. More is not better here.
All you have to do is save the carcasses from roast chickens, the backbones you cut out or unused necks. Any chicken bones you would throw out you throw into a bag and chuck it into the freezer.
Anything really as long as it never saw a grill. When you figure you have a pot full of bones, toss them into a pot along with one unpeeled, halved onion. Fill it up with water. Turn on the heat and wait.
And wait.
Wait some more…
Wait until you have simmered that pot of stock down from a full 5 litre pot to around a couple cups. This can take a long time. But it’s so worth it.
It goes from what you’d call stock to this syrupy, magic elixir. I’m not overstating it. Try it, you’ll see. You want it to be solid like jello when it comes out of the fridge.
Concentrated chicken stock. It’s a game changer. Seriously.
concentrated chicken stock
Ingredients
- 5 lbs chicken bones or more
- 1 onion unpeeled and cut in half
- Water to fill the pot.
Instructions
- Toss the chicken and onion in a big pot.
- Add enough water to cover the bones.
- Simmer over low heat, partially covered until reduced to about two cups. This takes around 6-8 hours. Keep an eye on it. The last thing you want is for it to go dry and burn.
- Strain through a colander to catch all the bones.
- Strain again through a fine mesh strainer to catch any small bits.
- To store, pour 1/2 cup into a medium ziploc freezer bag, squeeze the air out and freeze. Place a cookie sheet into the freezer as flat as you can get it and put the ziploc bags onto the cookie sheet to freeze up. An ice cube tray is another approach.
- Concentrated chicken stock keeps a month or two in the freezer.
- When you need some extra wow just break off a piece and melt it into the sauce.
