Recipe #2: Pan Roasted Chicken with Pan and Chanterelle Jus, Parmesan Cauliflower Mash

I’m not much for essentialism, but if I was, roast chicken might occupy the top of my essentialist manifesto. For all I can tell, the older I get, and the more I attempt to broaden my palette, the more that simple ol’ roast chicken seems to secure itself in the pole position of best food ever. Unbeknownst to me, chickens’ long domestic evolution may have been guided by no factor more fervently than taste, but if so, what an accomplishment. A well roasted chicken, and lord knows there are countless ways to do ‘em good, yields a depth of flavor and texture that seems to drive to the heart of what it means to be a carnivore. Nicole and I now have roast chicken dinner every Sunday.

The recipe below, which my lovely wife and I enjoyed in the company of our dear friends Conrad, Larissa and their new son, Jasper, is cobbled together from several sources. The chicken itself is from Jimmy Bradley, owner of the Red Cat in New York. He claims that deboning the chicken is the secret to his (widely acknowledged) success. It allows the meat to lie flat in the pan, maximizing the amount of even heat distributed to the bird. Deboning a chicken, while daunting, is actually not hard at all, and the cooked chicken sits a bit more stately on the plate, offering no bones to distract the eater. Bradley also cooks the chicken pieces skin-side-down in a canola oil (for its high smoke point). For me, this was a minor revelation in the kitchen. For reasons that in retrospect seem obvious, orienting the chicken with the skin down affords it a dense, crispy, well constituted character that I had only ever eaten in (good) restaurants. I suppose in the end the skin, sitting in a small puddle of oil and fat, is technically fried. But who really cares when it’s that good.

The cauliflower mash is from my brother. I add the pimenton, lemon and cheese, dismounting the dish from its non-dairy pedestal, but elevating it to something with a little more depth.

The jus is from Thomas Keller. Specifically, Roasted Guinea Fowl en Crepinette de Byaldi with Pan Jus in the French Laundry Cookbook. It’s involved, but like many things that take time, judiciously rewarding. I added in the chanterelles and their reconstituting liquids. Five minutes into dinner, Nicole exclaimed,” I love the jus!”. Jody, who was bar mitzvah’d at 13, replied,” Gee, thanks.”

Pan Roasted Chicken with Pan and Chanterelle Jus, Parmesan Cauliflower Mash

For chicken:

2 3-3.5lb organic chickens, deboned and separated into breast/wing and leg/thigh pieces

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

For jus:

Leftover bones/carcasses of 2 chickens

2 ½ cups chicken stock

2 ½ cups water

1 cup leeks chopped into ½” mirepoix

1 cup onion chopped into ½” mirepoix

1 cup carrots chopped into ½” mirepoix

1 oz dried chanterelle mushrooms

¼ cup canola oil

For broccolini:

2 bunches broccolini

3-4 cippolini onions

For red pearl onions:

20 red pearl onions

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt

For cauliflower mash:

1 head cauliflower

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 tsp pimento (Spanish smoked paprika)

Juice of half a lemon

Preheat the oven to 450.

Generously salt the chicken pieces and place them, uncovered, on a plate and put in the refrigerator. (This can be done a day in advance to the chicken’s benefit, though admittedly I did not do this the last time I cooked it. Leaving the chicken uncovered allows the fridge to suck moisture out of the birds’ skin which makes for a crispier roast.) When you are ready to cook the chickens, heat a couple tablespoons of canola oil in two large oven-proof pans over high heat until the oil is piping hot. Place the chicken pieces SKIN SIDE DOWN in the pans and arrange in such a way so that they are not overlapping at all. Fry for about 3-5 minutes, until the skin begins to color, and then transfer to the oven. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the liquid that comes out when the meat is punctured is clear.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized saucepan heat 4 cups of water to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add dried chanterelles and give a quick stir. Allow these to sit and reconstitute for 15 minutes and then strain the mushrooms, reserving about ¼ cup of liquid.

In a large braising pan or pot, heat the ¼ cup of canola oil until it’s really hot. Place the chicken bones in the pan such that they are all touching the bottom surface of the pan to the extent possible. Cook over high heat until they begin to brown and then flip them, about 10 minutes. After another five minutes, flip them once again and continue to cook until they are well browned, about 20 minutes total. Drain off the oil thoroughly, and add ½ of water to the pan, scraping the pan vigorously with a wooden spoon to deglaze. Let the water evaporate almost completely, until the pan is re-glazed, and then add ½ cup of chicken stock. Cook until this has evaporated, and then add the chopped vegetables. The moisture from the vegetables will sweat down to the pan bottom and allow you to deglaze again. Let this cook for about 10 minutes and then add 2 cups each of water and stock, and the reserved chanterelle reconstituting liquid. Allow to cook over high heat until reduced by about a third, and then strain through a colander (removing the carcass/bones first will make this easier), and then through a chinois, back into a medium sized saucepan. Add chanterelles and cook over medium-high heat until the jus is reduced to about ¾ cup.

For the mash, divide the cauliflower head into florets and steam until well cooked through, about 15 minutes. Put florets in a food processor and, adding the olive oil, process until smooth. Add pimenton, lemon juice and parmesan and blend for another 30 seconds.

For the broccolini, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium-sized pan and cook the cippolini onions until translucent. Add the broccolini florets and sauté until just cooked, about 5 minutes. Salt to taste.

For the pearl onions, lightly coat in olive oil and roast for about 15 minutes, or until translucent. (I do this in the toaster oven as the big oven is busy roasting chicken, but you could throw them in the regular oven with the chicken for about 10 minutes instead.)

To assemble the dish, put a small mound of mash off center on the plate. Lean a piece of chicken against this and surround with the broccolini, pearl onions and chanterelles. Finish with a few spoons of the jus.