A few seasons ago I did a class based on Jone Torode's Beef and Other Bovine Matters. It was a really great book with full illustrations and a very satisfying recipe for Corned Beef (that took me 5 days of preparation, but well worth it).
That's why we were very excited to hear that Australian born British chef John Torode was releasing "John Torode's Chicken and Other Birds. If it is anything like the Beef book, I knew we were in for a treat.
The Menu
Chinese Duck Soup with Noodles
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Grilled Chicken, Spinach, Olive and Pomegranate Salad
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Spiced Yogurt Kabobs
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Chicken Confit with Mash and Green Sauce
One of the most delicious things a person can do is make stock using a Chinese-style roast duck!
In order to do that, you will have to go to a shop that specializes in Chinese BBQ. In this case, I went to Chinatown. A whole BBQ duck is pretty easy to find. Buy a whole one. Don't let them chop it up though. You want to bring it home, pick off the meat and reserve it for the soup later, and add the carcass to a large pot and simmer for a while. To bump up the flavour, I added in a few chicken bones, but you don't really need to do this.
The flavour that comes out of the duck is so distinctive because, when roasted, the duck is spiced with star anise, soy, and other aromatics. All these flavours go into the stock and turns it into something so delicious, i could eat it for breakfast, lunch
and dinner.
I prepared the stock earlier in the day because it had to simmer for a few hours. Once done, it was simple to put it all together. The roast duck meat was chopped up, the stock was seasoned, some egg noodles were blanched in the stock, and some coriander chopped. All in a bowl, and you're in heaven.
The broth was clear and rich with roast duck and star anise flavour, the noodles were tender, and the coriander was fresh. One of my favorites of the night. Off to a good start.
When I choose recipes for a class, I try to incorporate as many cooking techniques as possible. The section this recipe was in talked about grilling. A simply grilled chicken breast seems so simple, but is actually very difficult to execute properly. But because the kabob dish I was doing next was grilled, I decided to teach people how to pan sear a chicken breast. This results in a beautiful golden brown, crispy skin with a moist inside. Something you would get a restaurant, a good one anyways.
The key to this is medium heat and a hot oven.
We seasoned in generously, placed the breast skin side down in a hot pan and allowed it to cook 10 minutes on medium heat, in a hot oven for 6 minutes and the chicken breast is perfectly moist and crispy. Other than changing the method of cooking for the chicken, the remainder of the salad was by the book. Spinach, pomegranate, and olives were tossed together with lemon juice and olive oil. The breast was sliced thin and layed on top. Easy. A great lunch of a meal salad, and ready in 15 minutes.
Now back to the grilling. The kabobs needed marinating for a few hours. They were initially marinated in a bit of lemon juice, thyme and salt and pepper for an hour. Then a mixture of yogurt, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric were added and continued to marinate for a couple more hours.
A note on the meat. For this recipe, I used dark meat. Meat from the legs are much better for a recipe like this. Chicken breast, when over cooked, is very dry and tasteless. The legs provide moisture and flavour and take a lot longer to over cook. I would highly recommend for all the skinless-boneless chicken breast people out there, open up your minds and palates to the wonders of dark meat!
Once skewered, the kabobs were grilled on a hot, clean grill until nicely browned and cooked all the way through. My grill is a challenge on a good day, but they turned out smokey and juicy. Served with Naan bread, like the picture, the flavours were not overpowering considering all the spices added. They were subtle and the yogurt gave it a nice twang.
Finally, the dish that really intrigued me was the confit chicken legs. We mostly associate "confit" with duck. With it's rich duck fat flavours, crispy skin, and fall off the bone tenderness.
The preparation for this chicken follows the same procedures as for duck. The legs were first salted with a mixture of sea salt, juniper berries, coriander seed, cardamom, thyme and garlic. It has to sit over night. The next day, the legs are submerged in a pot of melted duck fat and cooked for an hour in the oven. The chicken came out extraordinarily tender, juicy and delicious. The one alteration I did to this was once they were done cooking, I removed them from the fat, and placed them under the broiler for a few minutes to brown and crisp up the skin.
Served with some mash and a simple salsa verde, the legs were rich and warming. This recipe was as simple as it sounded. Unlike duck legs which take ours to cook, this was in the oven for just over an hour. The great thing was that they can be kept for a really long time in the fridge, as long as they are covered in the duck fat. If you pick up the book, you will also notice the dish looked just like the picture in the book, something that always makes me happy.
Just like John Torode's Beef, the Chicken book is the one stop shop for poultry recipes. There are not too many quality chicken books out there. The variety of recipes and flavours in this book will keep you cooking for a long time. And if you get tired of chicken, which we all do sometimes, there some great duck recipes!
Next Class: New Classic Family Dinners
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