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french fridays with dorie: m. jacques armagnac chicken
I love roasted chicken! I adore Dorie’s Lazy Person’s Chicken that we made for French Fridays with Dorie in November 2010, so I was game for another of Dorie’s versions for roasted chicken.
Once again, the recipe started with a large Dutch oven. My Le Creuset definitely gets a workout with Dorie’s recipes. It was a gift from my sister Jane, so it’s like she’s cooking along with me. Chopped onions, sliced carrots, and quartered potatoes are lightly warmed in olive oil, then, the lightly seasoned chicken is nestled in vegetables with some pitted prunes, herbs (still from my backdoor garden – in January – in New England – what’s up with that?), and brandy (cheap stuff, not actually Armagnac). Cover the pot and bake at high heat for an hour. That’s it!
I had some trouble figuring out how to truss the chicken. Did you? I didn’t plan ahead, and so when it was time to put the chicken in the pot, I quickly looked in a few books, but didn’t find any good pictures or descriptions. I ended up “winging” it, but I don’t know whether I should have bothered.
It would have helped if had read the recipe a little more carefully. I added ALL the ingredients before baking, including the cup of water that supposed to be added after the chicken is roasted. While my chicken was cooked through and perfectly moist, the skin didn’t browned. It was more steamed than roasted. I still consider it a success, but I missed the crispy skin.
The vegetables were a nice accompaniment. The onions melted into a sauce. The potatoes had great flavor from cooking in the chicken’s juices. If I hadn’t had the steaming issue I mentioned, I wonder whether the potatoes might have been crispier like my chicken skin was supposed to be. And, I liked the sweetness that the prunes added to the mix. I also braised some sliced Swiss chard to round out the plate.
I’m looking forward to reading about what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about this week’s recipe. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but I found it on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s website if you want to try this at home. It’s still worth getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. Maybe you’ll even want to cook along with us on Fridays.
Next week’s selection is French version of pound cake: Quatre-Quarts
French Fridays with Dorie: Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken
French Fridays with Dorie started off September with a bang. I loved the first two recipes. I’ll admit up front that I wasn’t all that excited about this one: Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken, but I’ve learned to trust Dorie to be surprising, so I didn’t sit out this week and gave it a try.
It turned out that this recipe couldn’t have been simpler for a weeknight meal. First, you crush some cookies, LU Cinnamon Sugar Spice, which I love to snack on. You stir the cookies into crème fraiche, and set the sauce aside.
Then, you sauté strips of chicken in olive oil until they are cooked through and nicely browned. The recipe called for chicken breasts, but we’re more of a dark-meat household, so I used boneless thighs instead. Finally, you add the sauce to the pan, heat it to a boil, and let it bubble for a minute or so. Voila! That’s it!
I served the chicken over Dorie’s cardamom rice pilaf with a light green salad. Preparing the entire meal took less than half an hour from start to finish.
What was the verdict? It was mixed. I started with low expectations, but it was more interesting than I thought it would be. I liked the contrast of the tangy crème fraiche with the sweet cookies. While I’ve used crème fraiche in room temperature dishes before, I’ve never heated it up. As promised, it didn’t curdle, and the end result was a thick and creamy sauce. A little big of magic.
On the other hand, Howard said “I don’t think I like cinnamon in my dinner”. He ate it for dinner and took leftovers for lunch, but wasn’t a big fan. It was definitely worth a try, but probably won’t make it again.
On the up side, the recipe only used two cookies, so I get to munch on the rest of the box.
We don’t share the recipes, but you can find in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. And, even though this wasn’t a favorite, I will still enjoy checking out what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about the week’s recipe. They are a creative bunch. You can find their links at French Fridays with Dorie.
This weekend, I’m excited to be trying out Dorie’s new iPad “Baking with Dorie” app. I haven’t tried cooking with a computer tool at hand before. It’s actually Howard’s iPad, but if he likes what I choose to make, he’ll share. I’m not sure which recipe I’ll try first, but I’m thinking maybe the Peanut Butter Torte.
Other weekend plans include enjoying the “A Taste of Greece” festival at St. Nicholas, the local Greek Orthodox church, tonight. I look forward to the homemade food, and especially the desserts, every year. On Saturday, Howard and I will share a special dinner out to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, which was yesterday. 19 happy years (the first one didn’t count) and many more to come!
A Plateful of Happiness 