Poulet en Cocotte is essentially a pot roasted chicken. A traditional French dish, it was produced by the subjects of the good King Henry on a Sunday in the management of the chickens supplied to every household at the time. While it is an exceptionally easy way to cook chicken, the cooking temperatures and timings I discovered in a copy of the wonderful American Cooks Illustrated magazine demand not only a leap of faith but one of intrepid courage on the part of the modern cook. Be assured though, recipes in Cook’s Illustrated are tested and created in America’s Test Kitchen - the site of the popular American cooking show. Articles in the magazine detail how the author came to the final recipe and the trial and error followed to arrive at it. It was with great confidence therefore that I carefully followed Charles Kelsey’s directions recently to produce a wonderfully comforting family meal on a cool Autumnal evening.

Apart from the quality of the raw ingredients - a fresh, young, well fed chicken, the success of the dish also demands a suitable cooking pot - essentially a Dutch oven. Known in France as a cocotte and in England as a casserole, this cast iron cooking vessel was popularized by the French company Le Creuset early last century with their attractively colored vitreous enamel coatings. Dutch ovens must have a tight fitting lid, side handles, ideally be oval - not round in shape and deep enough to contain a whole chicken. The pot must be thick and heavy and able to maintain even temperature during cooking and be able to go into the oven as well as sit on top of the stove. I use my twenty year old four litre capacity Le Creuset Dutch oven which perfectly contains a chicken of about 1.5 kilogram. These days the Le Creuset product is much imitated and affordable versions are of variable quality and practicality. (I recently purchased a six litre ‘Kirkland’ brand Dutch oven for $60.00 from Coscos and apart from some annoying features - for $60.00 it has generally proven to be good value for money.) It is important that the pot you use is not too big because the precious juices rendered in the cooking will be spread over too wide an area and either dry up or burn. What you want is for these juices to be sufficient to produce a delicious sauce to serve with your succulently cooked chicken.

Another reason that I am keen to recommend poulet en cocotte is because of the benefits of cooking whole chickens. As Elizabeth David notes in her much acclaimed book ‘French Provincial Cooking’ the risk associated with cooking fricasees and casseroles which involve the sauteeing of chicken pieces is that no matter how carefully the dish is prepared, these pieces invariably lose their juices and render a dry and unsatisfying dish. The more honorable and predictable exercise of cooking a whole bird and jointing and carving it before serving produces a far more satisfying result.

Certainly, a Poulet en Cocotte does not produce the visual spectacle of a golden roasted creature with crispy skin. In fact, visually in many ways it may appear at first a little disconcerting - bathing pale and milky in its aromatic juices. The first bite into the tender, juicy, flavorsome flesh of a chicken cooked in this way though will immediately overcome such reservations. Serve Poulet en Cocotte simply with first class salad greens, dressed with some of the juices from the pan. For extra comfort you cannot go past the addition of luxuriously mashed potatoes, whipped within an inch of their lives with the addition of cream and butter and a dash of olive oil and just a spoonful or two of those delicious pan juices.

To slowly cook a chicken in a pot for four to six people in the French manner you must allow almost two hours of you not doing a lot. Ten to fifteen minutes is needed to prepare the aromatic vegetables and brown the chicken. It takes one and a half hours to cook and needs at least ten minutes to rest. You can be bone idle during this period. Carving and jointing is a very simple matter with a bird cooked for this long, it wont take a minute and I know that you wont be disappointed with the results either.

Ingredients

• 1.5kg whole roasting chicken, giblets removed and discarded, wings tucked neatly behind the back
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ¼ cup chopped onion
• ¼ cup chopped celery
• 6 medium cloves garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 medium sprig rosemary (optional)
• ½ - 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method

1. Adjust the oven rack to the lowest position
2. Preheat the oven to 135C
3. Pat the chicken dry with paper kitchen towel and and season with salt and pepper
4. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat until just smoking
5. Add the chicken, breast side down; scatter the onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf and rosemary around the chicken
6. Cook until the breast is lightly browned, about 5 minutes
7. Using a small wooden spoon inserted into the cavity of the bird, turn the chicken and cook until the vegetables are well browned, 6 - 8 minutes
8. Remove the Dutch oven from the heat
9. Place a large sheet of foil or baking paper over the pot and secure it with the well fitting lid
10. Transfer the pot to the oven and cook for about 90 minutes
11. Transfer the chicken to a warm carving platter or a carving board, rest it breast side down, cover it with a loose cover of foil or baking paper and leave for 10 - 20 minutes. The aroma is ridiculous
12. While the chicken is resting, strain the juices from the pot through a fine mesh strainer into a small saucepan and skim off any fat
13. Allow the liquid to settle a few minutes, and heat gently over low to medium heat
14. Carve the chicken, adding any accumulated juices to the pan - arrange the chicken on a serving platter and garnish perhaps with some watercress, rosemary or tarragon
15. Stir the lemon juice into the jus to taste, serve it separately in a small jug

Sunday Relish consults in Meal and Pantry Planning, Food Shopping and Entertaining and offers Cooking Classes.

Contact Elizabeth Peddey  Ph: 0419 505 438  Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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