Whole Chicken

This country French recipe was one of my final exam dishes in culinary school. Delicious and simple, it has become a real family favorite. It’s very important to use the best quality red wine vinegar. We made our own at school with the leftover dribbles and drabs of wine. Many years later, I was cleaning the kitchen at the television studio where Martha Stewart’s show was produced, and noticed a cloudy substance in one of the bottles that I was about to recycle. I realized that it was a “mother,” a live bacterial culture that turns wine into wine vinegar. I took it home, transferred it to a glass cookie jar, and added red wine. That was over ten years ago. My tasty biology project is still alive and well, producing incredible vinegar. In France, this dish is often made with guinea hen, which has rich, dark meat, and much more complex flavor than chicken. Meme used to raise guinea hens; they would roost in the trees and make a huge fuss if anyone came into the yard.

The national dish of the Philippines, chicken adobo is popular in Filipino immigrant communities all over the world, including the Hawaiian Islands. This recipe comes from my auntie’s friend, Violet Sadural, who was born in the Philippines and now lives in Honolulu. Beef, fish, vegetables, chicken, and pork can all be cooked adobo style. Although open to the discretion of each cook, the basic adobo ingredients are usually vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns, and sometimes ginger. The dish is served simply, with white rice and stir-fried vegetables.

Virginia historians claim that the original Brunswick Stew was created in Brunswick County, Virginia, in 1828 by a camp cook for a member of the Virginia State Legislature. The original recipe called for squirrel rather than chicken, but most Yankees nowadays pass on the squirrel.

This dish, also referred to as escabeche, owes it origin to the Spanish, who created the technique of frying or poaching fish or chicken and then marinating it in a citrus or vinegar mixture as a way of preserving the meat. Because the marinating process can take up to a day, it is left in the refrigerator and as a result is typically served cold or at room temperature. It makes a great dish for a picnic or an outdoor meal because it can be made well in advance and only gets better with time.

I know that a 4-pound chicken is more than you need for two people, but if the point is to impress your date, you don’t want to serve a scrawny little chicken. This dinner is delicious and easy to prepare, so if you are a novice, this is a fine place to start. Working with a whole chicken for the first time can be an intimidating experience, but actually there’s nothing to it. The fresh parsley and rosemary turn these all-time favorite standards—chicken and potatoes—into a sophisticated dinner.

Homemade chicken soup is easy to make and tastes so much better than the stuff you get in a can that it’s worth the extra time it takes. I use a whole chicken to make the broth, but only put the dark meat in the soup. You can use the white meat to make Chicken Salad Pitas or Barbecue Chicken Pita Pizzas and save yourself the step of cooking the chicken.

Roasted chicken is such a staple for many people that I wanted to provide a zippy recipe that would avoid the all-too-frequent pitfall of bland, dry results. Here, I’ve replaced the common rosemary-thyme rub with ginger, orange zest, and cinnamon, which are also appetite stimulants. Rubbing the spices under the skin, filling the cavity with more aromatics and orange juice, and then roasting the whole shebang makes for one moist, tasty bird! Drizzle with Moroccan Pesto (page 186) or add a dollop of Apricot Pear Chutney (page 175).

If you are looking to save money, taking the time to roast your own chicken really can go a long way. Plus this foolproof method makes for a delicious chicken every time. After trying this traditional, scrumptious recipe, don’t forget to make your own chicken broth from the chicken bones, which are rich in flavor. Talk about more cluck for your buck.

Chicken coops have sprung up in some of the poshest neighborhoods. Once you become accustomed to eating well-raised chickens it is hard to tolerate flavorless commercially produced fowl. My friends Paul and Angela Knipple raise chickens in their midtown Memphis yard. They feed the chickens protein-rich peanuts; the result is wonderfully rich eggs and a flavorful chicken. Their rooster is named Karen. He was mismarked at delivery. Peanuts and chicken are found together in Asian dishes. Here those flavors infuse a whole roasted bird.

Succulent, tender, and aromatic, roast chicken is a dish that all cooks should have in their arsenal. There are many schools of thought on how to master the perfect roast chicken. My philosophy is the simpler the better. I don’t use a big roasting pan or rack, truss the bird, or change the oven temperature fifty times. As far as technique goes, I like to start roasting the chicken breast side down to protect it from drying out in the initial intense heat. Gravity also works on your side that way; all of the juices gather in the breast meat during the first half of cooking, keeping the meat really moist. Then I turn the bird over to finish cooking and brown the breast. Swiss Chard and Caramelized Onion Panade (page 183) makes a terrific side.

Cooking and cleaning pigs’ heads all day gave me a powerful hunger for chicken. This is an especially aromatic roasted chicken with an all-in-one sauce and side dish.

For the bones, select a combination of the following: chicken (necks, whole carcasses, wings, or feet), pork (any bone, shanks, necks, split feet, smoked hock, or ham bone), or beef (oxtail or any bones).

A laying hen is a different animal from the six- to ten-week-old supermarket fryers, roasters, and broilers we usually see. Laying hens are typically sold between one and three years old and create a different sort of stew, deeper in overall flavor but with less succulent meat. If you are using a laying hen, increase the cooking time to about an hour and a half, or until the meat is very tender. It will not be necessary to remove the breast meat during cooking as directed below.

The great Georgia humorist Roy Blount Jr. once joked, “Brunswick stew is what happens when small mammals carrying ears of corn fall into barbecue pits.” The origin of this thick stewed concoction is debatable, but most trace it back to 1828 in Brunswick, Georgia. Brunswick stew is a thick vegetable stew with shredded meat that is cooked over low heat in a large pot. Traditionally, it was made from squirrel or sometimes rabbit, and it has always been a popular way for hunters to make a complete meal from their wild game. Today, Brunswick stew is popular across the Southeast, although the squirrel and rabbit are generally replaced with pork, chicken, and beef. The vegetables might include corn, onions, tomatoes, beans, squash, or okra. Often it is the feast for large gatherings, festivals, and fund-raisers.

Have you ever tried a beer-can chicken recipe? That’s when a whole chicken is perched atop a beer can and set on the grill, so the beer steams from the can and keeps the sitting bird from drying out. The results are tender and moist, but sometimes the flavor is washed out; and if the chicken falls over it can be a mess. Loaf-Pan Chicken is a dummy-proof alternative to beer-can chicken, although the technique is not as gimmicky. You simply set the bird in a loaf pan and place it, pan and all, on the grill. The loaf pan captures all the juices and increases the humidity surrounding the chicken. The result is tender and moist meat every time, and best of all, the flavor is full and undiluted.

This is one of the most popular menu items at Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q and has been a staple in Decatur, Alabama, since Big Bob first started selling his ’Q in 1925. Most folks raised in North Alabama have firmly believed since childhood that barbecue sauce is white. Where did the rest of the country go wrong? The simple technique for cooking the chickens has not changed for more than eighty years, and the ingredients can be listed on one hand: salt, pepper, basting oil, and, of course, that creamy, tangy, peppery white sauce. An all-hickory fire on a closed brick pit is the only other necessity for duplicating the authentic Big Bob flavors. The type of oil used for basting has changed through the years. Big Bob used whatever oil was most easily available to baste the chickens as they cooked, including rendered lard. Excess fat was cut off the pork shoulders and heated in a pot until the lard liquefied. The rendered lard was stored in metal “lard buckets” until needed. No matter what type of oil is used, the chickens still taste fantastic.