Roast Chicken!

[David M. Bueker]

I just flew back from Europe, and boy are my arms tired...ba dum.

Anyway, the one thing that is just lingering in my mind and on my palate is the quality of the roast chicken in France and (wait for it) the UK!

Three times over the course of the trip I had a roasted chicken (or parts thereof), and each one was delicious. They were all flavorful, juicy and had the most fantastic, crispy skin.

While in Paris I finally had my dream meal - a perfectly roasted chicken with a bottle of top Beaujolais (Vissoux).

David, where did you have that dream meal? It's a favorite of mine.

I will say the quality of our roast chicken dinners has markedly improved since we began using Smart Chicken, a chicken that actually tastes like.......chicken.

[David M. Bueker]

Willi's Wine Bar. I love that place.

Also had outstanding chicken at a place called Rotisserie Jules in London (South Kensington). That was with Riesling and Chateauneuf...I could be tempted to alter my dream meal.

Lately, I've taken to roasting chicken parts, rather than whole chickens. I sprinkle breasts and leg/thigh quarters with S&P and some herb mix (herbs de provence is good). Then they get browned quickly in a skillet and from there to a rack in a roasting pan in a 400° oven. Leg/thighs go in about ten minutes ahead of the breasts. Results have been excellent, with crispy skin and perfect doneness. For weekday meals, I find this quicker and easier than dealing with a whole chicken. On the downside, there are few leftovers and no carcass for stock.

I sometimes do that too, Mike. I lay the parts out on a sheet pan and use high heat. They really crisp up nicely that way.
Of course, I shouldn't be eating chicken skin, but........

David,

I know just what you mean. The delicious roast chicken I had at Le Montrachet in Puligny in Burgundy lingers in my memory.

I think a lot has to do with the quality of the chicken itself.

I've also heard it said that one way to test the skills of a cook is to have her or him prepare plain roast chicken, as the dish leaves a cook no sauces or complex seasonings to hide behind.

-Paul W.

I sometimes do that too, Mike. I lay the parts out on a sheet pan and use high heat. They really crisp up nicely that way.
Of course, I shouldn't be eating chicken skin, but........

John, there's been some stuff lately suggesting that chicken fat isn't as bad for you as they used to think. I think it's been discussed here in fact, might have been mentioned by Robin? Here you go, found it -

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11788&hilit=+chicken

Here is the last post by Max Hauser :

This is more Mark Lipton's or Frank Deis's professional domain. But here's background on poultry fats that's long been public, yet gets inadequate play IMO. I raise it because today's habit of seeing fats as undesirable obscures important differences, and even essential nutrients in some of them. Case in point: Poultry fats.

Though they come from animals, poultry fats chemically resemble olive oil. Both have components liquid at room temperatures, partly or completely solid when refrigerated. In both, principal fat constituents are monounsaturated and the dominant fatty acid is oleic. Further, according to Enig's food-lipids book, chicken fat is a source of the "antimicrobial" palmitoleic acid, considered essential for the human immune system (olive oil is strong in natural preservatives, including tocopherols, making it slow to go rancid, but also important as human dietary antioxidants). Below is a comparison (numbers vary with the nutrients taken in by the olives and the chickens).

Principal fatty-acid and tocopherol ("vitamin E" antioxidant) components:

Olive oil 14% palmitic, 71% oleic, 10% linoleic; tocopherols 126 mg/kg

Chicken fat 23% palmitic, 42% oleic, 19% linoleic; tocopherols 28 mg/kg

This suggests you could do worse than cooking with a moderate amount of natural fat rendered from chicken. (I have an ironic image of people carefully discarding chicken fat, and at the same time taking expensive dietary supplements with similar content. Like the old parody of someone replacing a manual lawn mower with a powered version that carries them around on a seat, then having to buy an exercise machine to make up for the formerly inherent work-out. Actually used in a chapter of a rigorous engineering textbook, warning about frivolous or cynical consumer technology that merely takes people's money without serving their needs.)

Of course chicken fat is good for you! Roast chicken is also one of my favorite meals. With a nice pinot noir.

I think a lot has to do with the quality of the chicken itself.

.

We are lucky enough to get organic free range chickens raised within 20kms of our home. They are so flavourful you don't have to do much to them to make them taste great.

Yep, we have them here, too. Just a few miles away, in Yamhill, I can get free range chickens. But, even my local supermarket (Roth's) - which is closer - has "Ranger" free range chickens from Draper Valley. There is no comparison in taste with a regular old supermarket chicken.

IMO the bugaboo with chicken fat is with hormone-treated capons. Steroid hormones are fat-soluble and tend to concentrate in the bird's fat. Chicken skin enters the picture because chickens, like all warm-blooded animals, have a layer of insulating fat just under the skin.

If you avoid hormone-treated fowl, I don't see where chicken fat is any more or less healthy than any other sort of saturated animal fat.

-Paul W.

IMO the bugaboo with chicken fat is with hormone-treated capons. Steroid hormones are fat-soluble and tend to concentrate in the bird's fat. Chicken skin enters the picture because chickens, like all warm-blooded animals, have a layer of insulating fat just under the skin.

If you avoid hormone-treated fowl, I don't see where chicken fat is any more or less healthy than any other sort of saturated animal fat.

Paul,
In addition to steroid hormones being fat-soluble, the antibiotic monensin (used to battle endemic salmonella in chicken farms) is too. If you recall Frank Perdue's famous exhortation about his product's "healthy yellow color," the bitter irony is that the yellow color of the chicken comes (in part) from the yellow monensin in their diet. I always got a kick out of Perdue's hype, as it only works on folks who've never dealt with live chickens.

Mark Lipton

If you're finding hormones (added) and steroids (added) in your chickens you're dealing with a lawbreaker. It's against the law to add these to poultry in the USA.

That being said, I'll still stick with my free range chickens for a bunch of reasons, some of which are philosophical.

In addition to steroid hormones being fat-soluble, the antibiotic monensin (used to battle endemic salmonella in chicken farms) is too. If you recall Frank Perdue's famous exhortation about his product's "healthy yellow color," the bitter irony is that the yellow color of the chicken comes (in part) from the yellow monensin in their diet. I always got a kick out of Perdue's hype, as it only works on folks who've never dealt with live chickens.

Mark Lipton

Mostly the "healthy yellow color" comes from Perdue feeding the chickens marigold petals.

-Paul W.