A Chicken in Every Pot

Roasting a chicken is an exercise in compromise. The breasts, which are done at 160 degrees, will be dry and tough if the thighs are allowed to fully cook to 170 degrees. Perfectly crisped skin requires the considerable sacrifice of ideally succulent meat. While anyone can produce delicious results simply by throwing a seasoned bird into a hot oven, the quest for the ultimate roast chicken is a formidable, quixotic challenge.

One solution is to concentrate your efforts on perfecting one element of the roast. Although this approach is somewhat defeatist, I definitely felt like a winner last night, when I made the juiciest chicken of my life, poulet en cocotte. This classic French dish roasts a whole chicken inside a pot at a low temperature. The enclosure prevents moisture from evaporating, producing a concentrated, rich flavor and meat so moist that the juices flowed off my cutting board and onto the floor, even after resting for a full twenty minutes. Unfortunately, this came at the expense of the skin, which remained a rubbery, embarrassed pale yellow (although more sightly than the raw chicken photographed above).   

Alex and I tried to have a serious conversation about the dish’s merits, but kept breaking into laughter about how ridiculous we looked with chicken dripping down our chins. In the end, we decided that the dish was a success, but it won’t be replacing my usual roast chicken recipe anytime soon.