Epic Roast Chicken, Potato Puree, and Swiss Chard Stems

About two weeks after the release of Modernist Cuisine at Home, I got to see Nathan Myhrvold speak at Harvard's science + cooking course. There, he laid out the classic problem with whole roast chicken: either you can have well cooked meat OR crispy skin, but that the two are pretty much mutually exclusive. Then he put up a giant photo of a raw chicken surrounded by about 5 or 6 syringes and said something to the effect of "this is what I'd do".

He later pointed out that the best solution was to disassemble the chicken, separate the skin, cook all of the parts separately, then reattach the skin later... obviously a reference to using some good ol' fashioned meat glue! Just like mom used to make! Oh, and as a quick aside: when I picked up some meat glue for the first time a few months ago, I found out that it comes with a very ominous warning label reading, "handle this product the same way you would any other powdered enzyme". Ohhhh, of course. I feel so much safer eating this now. For my sake, hopefully the handling procedure for those other powdered enzymes is by putting on some nitrile gloves and crossing your fingers. I digress - back to the chicken.

All over this recipe are little disclaimers saying that this recipe is a pain in the ass and how its so hard to do etc etc when really it isn't even close to the level of difficultly for pretty much anything you'll find in the main book. I think he says that so that after people pull this one off, they won't be as discouraged to try other recipes that may seem involved.

Roast Chicken*
1 4lb whole chicken
100g water
6g salt
1 enormous pot of boiling water
1 enormous ice bath

*I ended up with a 3.5lb roast chicken and scaled accordingly, but I'll leave the original recipe up here. Also, above I halved the salt and water because I used a finer needle than this guy and found that you really don't need all that much.

Begin by removing the wishbone while avoiding to tear the skin in any way or cutting into the breast meat. Next french the ends of the legs. Dissolve the salt in the water and use a fine tipped syringe to inject approx. 40ml of the solution into each breast. Inject the remaining solution into the legs and thighs.

Next, plunge the chicken in the boiling water and leave for 20 seconds. then transfer to the ice bath for 20 seconds. repeat this process 2 more times. This will tighten the skin and is crucial to the whole operation, so don't skip it. After the last session of shock therapy, pat dry.

Roast Chicken (cont.)
chicken, from above
30g soy sauce
5g smoked spanish paprika

Mix the soy sauce and paprika together and glaze onto the entire exterior of the chicken. I was pretty generous so you might want to increase the scaling of this mixture by 20% or so to make sure you have enough. Next, place on a cooling rack and let it dry out in your fridge overnight. 

The next day

Start off by calibrating your oven. Figure out what setting actually gives you 205F by not doing what I did below. Otherwise, you will need to go out and buy another oven thermometer to complete this step, while feeling like a total jackass.

Stick the chicken into the oven with a thermometer and let it roast very slowly until the deepest part of the chicken reads 140F . This will take approx. 3 hours.

Meanwhile, lets get rolling on the sides - I felt like since I was already plagiarizing one dish, why not up it to 3 and make it a complete meal. Next I did the at-home potato puree and and main book's sous vide swiss chard stems.

Sous Vide Swiss Chard Stems
50g trimmed swiss chard stems
20g butter
2g curry powder
1.5g salt
0.2g saffron
1 cardamon pod, cracked
1 bay leaf

Cut the trimmed chard stems into 3in lengths and vacuum pack with the remaining ingredients. Cook sous vide for 15 minutes at 140F and keep warm. These guys will float so things you can weigh them down with include cheese graters and steel measuring cups.

Potato Puree
500g peeled and diced yukon gold potatoes
1kg water

Seal the water and diced potatoes and cook sous vide at 158F for 35 minutes. Drain the water and refrigerate for 30 minutes or completely cooled. Remove the potatoes from the fridge and bring them along with cold water to a simmer. Simmer for 25  minutes or until tender.

Pass the potatoes through a ricer and then through a fine meshed sieve. Reserve.

Potato Puree (cont.)
sieved potatoes
200g butter, cubed
125g heavy cream
Salt

Bring the heavy cream to 180F and whisk in the potatoes. Add in the cubed butter, salt as needed and keep warm.
 

To Complete
1 140F roasted chicken
reserved potato puree
reserved swiss chard stems
celery leaves

Once the chicken is up to the correct temperature, let it rest for 45 minutes. Next, brush oil over the top of the chicken.  Set the oven to broil and with the top of the chicken approx. 3in from the broiler, broil on one side for 6 minutes and then on the other side for 5 minutes. Carve immediately and plate with potatoes and chard. Here, I also plate some of the sous vide chard juices straight from the bag. Garnish the swiss chard stems with a few celery leaves and serve.

 

I've got to say, this really does set the bar for roast chicken. The meat is mind blowingly succulent and flavorful while skin is literally crackling as you try to greedily get some on your fork. The mashed potatoes have an absurd amount of fat and given your final yield of potato, are visibly tinted yellow and smell strongly of butter. They're silky and so luxurious that all you'll need are a few bites. The chard stems add a spike of green freshness and some much needed crunch, but are completely forgettable in comparison to the other two superstars on the plate.