Sunday Dinner - Pan Roasted Chicken

This week I tested (and revamped) a pan roasted chicken recipe because I wanted the taste of  roasted chicken but didn’t feel like actually roasting.  Yes, roasting is easy, but I wanted every piece to have skin and look pretty, which I don’t always manage when the chicken is hot, so I chose to do the work on the front end of the process.

I’m a big fan of Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen, because they do all of the testing and let you know what doesn’t work.  But, they appear to have all the time in the world to cook, and don’t worry at all about fat/calories, both of which are big considerations in the MealMixer kitchen!

The recipe is a bit fiddly, because first you have to cut the chicken into pieces, brown it, steam it, wipe out the pan and re-crisp the skin, then, finally,  make the sauce.

The reason for starting from a whole chicken is to get pieces that are proportionally sized and cook at roughly the same rate.  I promise you that the tray of pick-of-the-chix  is not pieces from the same bird.  How can I say that?  Well, for starters there are THREE drumsticks… 

ANYHOW, if you just can’t deal with the work, take the bird to the meat counter and ask them to do it for you.  If you’re willing to do it yourself, take the following precautions:  1.  Prepare your big, heavy knife by running it down the sharpening steel a few times.  Hold it at 20 degrees, or, for the rest of us, roughly at 11:00 or 1:00 depending on which hand you’re using.  2.  Use plenty of paper towels – chicken is slippery and you need to keep your hands and knife dry.  3.  If your hands get cold, stop and warm them under warm water; cold slippery hands and  chicken is a recipe for no fingers.

Freeze the the spine and the wings for making broth.   It’s a rainy day project, we’ll talk about it later.

Once the chicken is all in pieces and seasoned, you brown the skin side.  This is most effectively done by heating the oil over medium  high heat, putting the chicken in the pan, setting the timer for 6 minutes, and WALKING AWAY.  For me, the temptation to move it is just too great.  Then you flip it over, add some broth, and, literally steam it in the pan for 15-20 minutes.  I started to re-crisp the skin as the recipe directed, but decided it was completely unnecessary, and went right to the pan sauce.   I let the chicken hang out in the sauce to re-warm while I finished up the side dishes.

It had great flavor, but the sauce really needed mashed potatoes and not noodles.  All in all a very satisfying Sunday dinner to have in the family meal plan archives!