Roasted Organic Chicken

As I begin to write this post, I'm sitting here drinking a glass of Alsace Gewurztraminer while my chicken stock is on a low simmer and my chicken thighs are confit-ing, I'll tell you why in a little bit, but first, I have to report on my most recent visit to Nicholas.

Let me attempt to draw everyone a picture. Contrary to popular belief, we are not heirs to any fortune, nor Wall street moguls. I make a decent salary as a computer geek on my un-college-educated background, and Laurie has been studying her ass off (and not working) going through nursing school for the past year. She then spent a few months scouring NJ for 'the' perfect nursing job. She lands it after MUCH hard work. It's 3, 12 hour shifts a week in the NICU. She comes home Thursday at 8pm after a 12 hour shift and has her first 'real' paycheck in hand. I say "Laurie, you should go out and splurge on a nice handbag, something expensive, something you wouldn't normally buy". In her nursing scrubs, at 8pm, after a 12 hour shift, she says, "Let's go to Nicholas instead!" (the car was still running!)

THAT, my internet friends, is why I married my wife.

That and because she makes statements like this.

So, she throws on something presentable, we get into her fancy new Mini Cooper and I break every speed law to get there at a reasonable time where I won't piss off the kitchen ordering a 20 things from the bar menu so late in the night.

We arrived at 8:50. (It's a 40 minute drive from our house). There was one table left in the bar. Awesome! Coincidentally, it was the first night of the truffle tasting menu!  Since I was going to order a few things from the bar menu that were on the truffle tasting menu anyway, I decided to go with that. Laurie decided she wanted some comfort food after a long day of work and ordered a few things off the menu (with some 'suggestions' from me) and also the "Roasted Organic Chicken". Normally I'd kick her in the ass for ordering 'The Chicken' dish at a good restaurant (with the exception of Blue Ribbon!), but I was completely on-board as I knew we were planning on cooking this soon, and it was her night.

Dishes we ordered (hey, don't laugh, we like to 'taste' a lot!)

Laurie

Portobella Carpaccio
I thought to myself, really? A 'mushroom' carpaccio? Seemed a little contrived. I was wrong. This was an awesome dish. The vinaigarette was fantastic.

Lamb Tartar
Laurie hates lamb. She really does. AND she hates really rare meat usually. But, we both agreed, this dish was THE best dish of the entire night. I'm not quite sure how, but the croutons mixed with the tartar, were the exact same size as the lamb, and remained PERFECTLY crunchy. The Harissa Vinaigrette, was just awesome. There was a quenelle of something pretty good on the top too. I asked, but the server just said it was a quenelle. I'm guessing most people don't quiz the servers.

Butter Poached Lobster 

A Laurie stand-by favorite.

Roasted Chicken 

 What can I say, imagine the best roasted chicken, with chicken confit, and mashed potatoes. At this point, Laurie, bless her, was falling asleep at the bar table, but absolutely loved it. I'm glad we are making it!

Rob (Truffle Tasting Menu)

Foie Gras (and Truffles)

 I'm actually not the biggest Foie fan, but this was good. Laurie, who hates foie too, and I vowed never to ask her to try another foie dish after having her try what I thought was the (second*) best foie dish ever, at Jean-George, tried it, and thought it was good too.

(*the first best is at Stage Left, with the French Toast)

Cauliflower Panna Cotta (with Truffles)

Good, but I thought it was the weakest dish of the night. I understand though. The tasting menu is pretty extensive and this is a pretty good dish to put in, as it can all be prepped ahead of time. It's basically a play on a creme brulee dish with some cauliflower puree with lots of creme and butter, topped with a veal demi-glace-ish geletin with truffle shavings in it, served chilled. Perhaps because it was up against the best dish of the night, the Lamb tartar, that I didn't love it.

Hand-Rolled Garganelli (with a Truffle Sauce)

 This was one I was going to order initially. I love garganelli with truffle. I order it at least once a week from Catherine Lombardi. This was a very refined, and very 'Nicholas' version of one of my favorite all around dishes. It didn't dissapoint.

Chicken Confit Pot Pie (with Truffles...do you see a theme here?)

 You may laugh. Chicken Pot Pie...at Nicholas? Really?  OK...My statement of the night.

You know you are at Nicholas, when you order a chicken pot pie... the chicken is confited...and the carrots inside, are...

all. perfectly. tourneed!!!

Yes. I notice things like that. Other things that I notice? Bar ice quality, Bar napkin quality, C-fold hand tower quality in the bathrooms. Those things set restaurants apart. I may be a piss-ant customer who doesn't put a dent into the bottom line of any restaraunt, but I'll pay a few bucks extra a drink, to have a quality bar napkin.

Cheese 
 Truffled cheese and a few others. We were both full at this point!

Desserts we both shared

Coconut Tapioca 
Great - Can't wait to make this for guests out of the cookbook!

 
Brioche + Toffee Bread Pudding, Black Truffle Ice Cream
 I was stuffed at this point, Laurie, was half asleep at the table, and we were the only ones left in the bar. I really hate being 'that guy' holding up and inconvienencing staff, but we were both eager to try this dessert as we were curious about the black truffle ice cream. First, the toffee bread pudding and banana crisps could have been a dessert themselves. The truffle ice cream was actually really good, but a little 'too' truffly for me after having my previous courses all truffles. But, very well executed. 

We each had a wine by the glass to start (Wouldn't that be a cool name for a blog? 'My life on the Wines by the Glass list'), and then it was suggested a Barbaresco half-bottle with my truffle tasting. Awesome, I love earthy Barbaresco's and this was a very reasonably priced half bottle! (...and very good too). Laurie didn't drink as she was very much tired as is was.  

Bottle line, it was STILL much much cheaper than a fancy handbag! (although, I have a feeling she pulled a fast one and she'll still end up with a new tricket come next pay check! I'm on to you Laurie!)

The service was exceptional, even in a crowded bar. One of my new years resolutions was to be better with names, but, I failed on rememberng our waiters name. Mea Culpa. 

Speaking of resolutions, one of my major ones was to Learn more about wine. It was suggested to me, that night, to pick up Kevin Zraly's "Windows on the World" complete wine course book. The next morning at 9am, I did, and it's awesome. Hence me drinking a Gewurztraminer from Alsace as I type (French white's are the first class/chapter). I recommend this book (so far) to anyone wanting to really learn about wine. My major problem, if you haven't noticed, is that when I get into things, I have to take them to a level most won't. That's what scares me about learning about wine, I'm hoping it won't consume me (and hope actually, more of the opposite!).

If you think I talk alot, catch me after a cocktail at the bar.

So, back to the actual cooking of this dish. Roasted chicken. To me, it's almost as American as apple pie. Michael Ruhlman wrote a great article last week and referenced simple, roasted chicken. I'm with him. Roast chicken on a Sunday night is great. So, last week, we lined a cast iron skillet with bacon, threw a Griggstown chicken on top, stuffed it with a lemon and threw in some carrots and potatos put it in a 425 oven and did exactly what he suggested. Drank a bottle of wine and had sex. Then ate...and it was fantastic. 

This Nicholas recipe is a bit different. It takes that awesome simple roast chicken to the next level (as all his dishes do). It first involves brining, then drying, THEN roasting. It also includes a great sauce. It's not hard, just requires you to think about it ahead.

We started with the best chicken we could find, a Griggstown Chicken. Griggstown Quail Farm is local to my work, near Princeton on my way home and has the best quality chickens in the state. I'm not actually sure if it's certified organic, or whatever tree-hugging Alice Waters 'thing' it is, but all I know they have great chicken. Sure, they are 14$ a chicken, but you know what? We use EVERY part of that chicken, and end up saving money in the long run. To you guys buying expensive shitty Purdue chicken breasts...imagine getting 2 'good' chicken breasts, wings, legs and thighs, then a quart of chicken stock for 14$. Way worth it. (Griggstown also carries duck fat, veal demi-glace and a buch of other awesome stuff's). 

I'm getting good at butchering a chicken. 

We brined the chicken for 24 hours, then let everything dry out for 24 hours. We made a spice rub for the thighs that are to be confited.

After that was done, We started on the chicken confit. I didn't render chicken fat (as I threw out the scraps needed for it, by accident) but had a load of duck fat to use, (and some bacon fat too)

Doesn't everyone have at least a quart of duck fat handy? If not, you should. You haven't had breakfast skillet potatoes until you've had them with some duck/bacon fat.

 

The sauce, which Laurie says was/is the best part of the dish, consisted of chicken stock, made into a brown chicken stock with some roasted bones and tomatoes, a sherry deglaze, etc. etc... Quit the lengthy process if you are trying to make everything, from scratch, on a Sunday. But I figured I already had the stock in the freezer.

I went to go into the freezer to pull out some chicken stock, and low and behold, I had forgotten I'd used it for a Mexican chicken soup the night before. DOH!

I reached for the Better than Bouillon, but thought better. I would have never did this dish justice if I would have actually used it. Instead, I pulled out about 3.5lbs of chicken parts I've been saving and put a pot of stock on! While I was making the stock, I threw the carcass in the oven to roast/brown it for the sauce as well. I know the recipe for Chicken stock in the book says 40 minutes or so, but I just don't feel right not having chicken stock barely simmer for less than 2.5-3 hours, so I did just that. I also figured out a trick for easy skimming. Use your steamer insert to keep down all the chicken parts and mirepoix! After 3 hours, I had the clearest chicken stock I've ever made!

This big skimmer I picked up at the Hong Kong supermarket helped out a lot too (1.99)

After that was done, the sauce had to be made and simmer for 2 hours. There was certainly a lot of time to read my Windows on the World wine book AND drink wine. We did. We also made a video since some of you seem to dig a glimpse into our kitchen. I just like it because I imagine our kid Laughing at Mom and Dad's stupid blog one day.

To our future children. If you reading this, know that you were probably conceived while a pot of chicken stock was simmering on the stove.

The recipe, like most in the book, calls for celery root, however what I thought I had in the bin in my refrigerator, turned out to be not celery root, but a rotten thing that vaguely once was a celery root, so I substituted some celery.

After some simmering and a few strains here and there, the sauce was made.

As well, some potatoes whipped...

...and turnips, carrots, and squash, blanched (then thrown in a pot with some butter to heat through)

Notice how my baby carrots are cut perfect? Even more perfect than the aformentioned tourneed ones in my Pot Pie? That's because I bought them in a bag!

So that's it. All of the major components were done, and it was only 8pm! It was time to open up our second bottle of wine, this time, our suggested pairing a Grenache based Cotes du Rhone (which, I've yet to read about in my book, but our lovely friend Scott at Marketplace Wines recommended it)

At this point, we were admittedly a little tipsy.

And very very hungry. We had been drinking wine and snacking on....don't laugh, string cheese all day.

We browned and roasted the chicken, and let it rest, while doing the same with the confit.

 Becuase of that drying out overnight, the skin crisped up PERFECTLY.

And the confit, we'll it's confit, I don't have to justify it. 

And finally, after making every component of this dish on the same day, we feasted.

My apologies for the horrible knife work in slicing in my plating.

Thoughts: When I say we feasted. We feasted medeivel times style, with our hands. It's a roast chicken to the next level, while still being a roast chicken dish. I don't expect home cooks to aways cook a dish like this when they want to roast chicken. I'd expect most to follow Ruhlman's method, but everyone should try it at least once. I unfortunately ruined the best part for Laurie and over salted the sauce. I enjoyed it, but she said I was a tad heavy on the salt. The veggies and potatoes were good, nothing special as they weren't meant to be the stars of this dish.

There are a few takeaways from this dish I'd like to point out:
1. Brining, and drying, are worth it. They are simple steps that if you 'are' planning ahead, are must-do's. Test it out the next time you make something as simple as chicken wings.
2. Butcher your own chickens and try not to buy things already butchered. The benefit is you'll have a reserve of chicken stock making parts, in a pinch, and THAT is worth it!
3. Yes, if you're roasting a chicken, a 14$ chicken, is worth it. We had a lot of things on hand, but look at the ingredeints used...this is a 30$ or less trip to the grocery store that would feed 4 people, easily. Afterall, it's chicken.

4. A sauce can make or break a dish, unfortunately I oversalted mine a bit, but use good quality ingredients in a sauce...the best stock you can make/find.