So here it is July, and I’m proud to say that I have taken another step toward the completion of my New Year’s Resolution (to attempt a restaurant-quality meal each month). I’m not as proud to say that this still only makes four such meals despite the fact that July is the seventh month of the year, but I’m committed to picking up the slack so that I can still end the year with twelve of these experiences under my belt.
For this month’s challenge, I found myself intrigued by several tweets raving about Thomas Keller’s recipe for roast chicken. “So simple!” “So perfect!” So I decided to try it for myself and see what all the fuss was about. To complete the restaurant quality meal, I turned to Food & Wine’s archives and picked a suitably summery side from a list of Keller recipes: heirloom tomatoes stuffed with succotash. Remembering what happened when I tried to channel Barton Seaver back in May, I knew I would be thinking long and hard about every grain of salt I added to these dishes.
Recipes for Thomas Keller’s favorite roast chicken and the succotash-stuffed tomatoes after the jump.
Keller’s recipe for Mon Poulet Rôti, which is translated to My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken really is one of the most simple recipes you will ever read:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Take a 2 1/2 to 3 pound chicken (the fresher the better) and rinse it. Pat it dry with paper towels as thoroughly as possible – the less moisture remaining, the drier the heat in the oven and the crispier the skin. Salt and pepper the cavity of the chicken and truss it (to promote more even roasting). At this point the recipe calls for us to “rain salt over the bird” to the tune of another 1 tablespoon of salt. I scaled it back to about a half a tablespoon in deference to my experience with Seaver’s recipes last time.
When the oven reaches temperature, place the trussed chicken on a roasting rack (or in an oven-safe pan) and cook it for 50 to 60 minutes. Take out the now beautifully browned chicken to let it rest, and turn your attention to the pan drippings that have come from the roasting. Add two teaspoons of minced thyme to the juices and use them to baste the chicken a few times while it’s cooling.
And that’s pretty much it. After 15 minutes’ rest you can tear into the chicken, or you can spread some unsalted butter and/or Dijon mustard atop the crispy skin to enjoy the meal the way Keller does.
While the bird was cooking, I moved on to the second half of the meal – heirloom tomatoes stuffed with succotash. I’ll be the first to admit it: unless there’s a “Sufferin'” before it and it’s coming from a cartoon, I have next to no experience with succotash. I know it’s generally perceived to be a a disconcerting vegetarian option…frozen lima beans aren’t very appetizing, and fresh ones are all but impossible to find. But I was committed making a succotash from scratch, which would give me a chance to learn exactly what it has to offer.
To make the succotash, my first challenge was finding fresh lima beans. Frozen just wouldn’t do – there was an entire note from Keller talking about the difference between the succotash of his childhood (frozen) and the one he prepares from fresh. Stymied as to where we’d find 3/4 cup of fresh lima beans, I remembered a product from my Trader Joe’s days and made a key substitution; I opted to use shelled soybeans instead. With that little hurdle cleared, it was time to make the recipe.
I preheated the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and, while it was warming up, cooked the kernels cut from 2 large ears of corn and about 4 ounces of shelled soybeans in a pot of boiling water. I drained the beans and corn and set them aside to cool. Meanwhile, I cut a wedge out of the top of each of four heirloom tomatoes, though I didn’t go all the way through. I roasted these tomatoes (without throwing anything out) for about 5 minutes before pulling them out of the oven and scooping their insides like a jack-o-lantern. Each roasted tomato would serve as a delivery mechanism for the all-too-messy succotash.
To finish the recipe, I added two tablespoons of olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat and proceeded to cook down a finely diced red pepper. When the pepper looked about done (could take you about 4 minutes, could be closer to 10), I added the now-cool corn and soybeans to the skillet. Next stop: plating.
The succotash was vibrant, with the bright green of the beans picking up the white of the corn and the red of the pepper. The flavors were equally bold, a nice counterpoint of sweet corn and acidic tomato. The side easily emerged as the hero of the plate. We found ourselves hungrily enjoying the combination and even thinking ahead to how well it would work in our lunches the next day.
The chicken? Sad to say, it didn’t fare quite as well. Maybe I just didn’t pat enough of the moisture out before popping it into the oven, or maybe we’re spoiled from our favorite brining recipe, but we found Keller’s version a bit plain. The skin crisped in most places but generally speaking it was not the succulent meat with the crunchy skin that we were hoping for.
Even so, the meal was a celebration of fresh, local ingredients that definitely highlighted Keller’s ability to bring tastes together. And the substitution of the soybeans for the lima beans? We thought it worked out pretty well, thank you very much.
If you’ve had experience with the Keller chicken recipe, we’d love some thoughts on what we might have done wrong. I can’t guarantee we’ll try it this way again, since brining a bird is not an especially laborious step and it pays off with BIG dividends, but I’d love to pick up some tips as well.
September 23, 2009 at 6:14 pm
hello,
saw your trying out Keller’s chicken and noticed that you found it plain.
I’ve made the recipe a few times and here’s what I’ve discovered: I actually believe that is the point.
What I’ve found is that the chicken is a simple, unaltered chicken flavor. Nothing more; no rosemary or garlic or sage. My opinion/feeling is this recipe is an attempt to get us back to the whole chicken flavor.
I do admit to this surprising discovery about this particular recipe:
For whatever reason, it’s not NEARLY as good the 2nd day. I’m a BIG leftover fan, but I’m not quite sure why this never tastes as good. Every time I crave this chicken recipe, I seem to only like it the day I cook it.
So, I would say to anyone trying it at home:
Just imagine going for the most simple flavors and you might surprise yourself. It’d say it’s not really just about simple, it’s more about the fundamental.
Cheers!
September 23, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Interesting insight, Chance. We do brine our roast chicken and include garlic and some seasoning but when the actual roasting happens we typically let the chicken speak for itself. Still, most recipes are worth a second shot so we’ll let you know how round 2 goes. Though, in all honesty, I think we’re just realizing we like our roast chicken *just so* and we’ll probably stick with the tried and true method.
By the way, I think you have a virus on your blog. I got some ugly pop ups when I tried to visit. Let me know if you get it fixed, I’m happy to put your URL back up.
October 5, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Congrats on your quest to produce restaurant quality meals in 2009! It is one tasty endeavor! And while I agree this recipe is plain in that it only uses salt and pepper with the final step of basting the fresh time over the resting bird, the flavor is out of this world. Anyone not finding this result must be going wrong somewhere. Here’s what comes to mind after reading your experiences. Hearing the skin wasn’t brown enough or was not crisp all over makes me think the oven isn’t calibrated. Could be your digital 450 readout might only be hitting 410 or 415. I know my oven is way off at the higher temps and so I must use an oven thermometer to make sure the temps are right. My true 450 is 480 on my digital setting. Regarding the plain flavor is it possible you are going too light on the salt and pepper? I dump about a tablespoon of pepper and kosher salt into the cavity of the bird and then roll it around in my hands until I see the seasoning lining the whole cavity. Then I truss and rain down alot of salt and pepper before sticking the bone dry bird into the hot oven. Last, when pulled out to rest is it possible you forgot to spoon the minced thyme infused juices over the bird? This bird is so killer I’ve got one in the oven right now LOL! I can only cook about 4 of these before I have to run the clean oven cycle, otherwise my condo smokes out! Good luck!
October 6, 2009 at 9:32 am
Wow! Thanks for all the great advice, Patrick. You’ve given me lots to think about here…starting with the oven temperature. We’re roasting a chicken tonight – I’ll have to take a look and see if we’re getting true readings.
I definitely used a decent amount of salt rained down over the bird, but I don’t think I seasoned the cavity as well as you suggest…another good idea we’ll have to use next time.
I did spoon the juices over the bird while it was resting, so I’m fairly certain that wasn’t part of the problem.
But again – thanks for all the help. Sounds like we definitely have to give this recipe another shot sometime soon.
March 2, 2010 at 10:59 pm
I have found first running my fingers beneath the skin will separate it from the meat and help with the crisping and browning. As for the seasoning I prefer instead of seasoning the outside of the bird, placing my salt and pepper underneath the skin along with a few small pieces of butter to baste the breasts