Это предварительный просмотр рецепта "Two Recipes for Chicken with Two very different results".

Рецепт Two Recipes for Chicken with Two very different results
by Monte Mathews

Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk Richard Olney's Chicken Gratin

Jamie Oliver I

am a sucker for a good chicken recipe.

So the minute I saw that Food 52, one of my favorite food sites, had

named Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk a “Community Favorite”, I rushed right out

and bought a whole chicken and everything else needed to make it. There were 85 reader comments about Jamie’s

recipe, most of them in the ‘off the charts’ category of sheer love for this

recipe. And as I am a true fan of Mr.

Oliver, I felt sure that I had found chicken nirvana. All the photos I take of

what I’ve cooked are in files generally labeled with the exact recipe

name. Not so my Jamie Oliver’s Chicken

in Milk. Instead its file is entitled “Hideous Chicken”. What went so radically wrong? As readers know, I am pretty strict about

following a recipe to a tee. I did in this case too. But I think

I should have had fair warning when I read the following: “A one-pot technique

for the most tender roast chicken, with the

most strangely appealing sauce.” The

italics are mine. The description went

further, describing the strange thing that happens to the sauce. It curdles.

There was an antidote to this curdling but Food52 brushed it away

claiming that the curds are the best part and “the split sauce is actually the

point”. Well one man’s split sauce is

another man’s idea of how to ruin a chicken. The bird itself was amazingly

moist from the lactic acid in the milk I will give you that. But pouring the

curdled, overly lemon sauce gave the chicken a terrible bitter taste and ruined

it for me. So you’d think I’d be put off

Food52 for a while at least. But last

week, they published yet another chicken recipe. And it was not all that different from my "Hideous Chicken". But this time, they had me at Gratin.

Richard

Olney is hardly the household name that Jamie Oliver has become. Behold the power of television. Richard Olney was born in Iowa but most of

his adult life was spent in France, in Provence to be exact. He had moved to Paris in 1951 where he

painted and cooked and wrote. He was a

prolific food writer. In 1970 his

“French Menu Cookbook” was published in English. In it he extolled the virtues of the seasonal

menu and wine pairings. Then in 1974 he wrote

“Simple French Food” and his fame skyrocketed.

He had a huge impact on Nouvelle Cuisine and California Cuisine. Alice Waters became a disciple and James

Beard a mentor. He then went on to write

the 28 volume Time Life series “The Good Cook”.

He died at age 72 in 1999. I first became aware of Olney on a

cooking vacation in Provence. Reading up before we got there, I was intrigued

by his writing. So when I saw that Food52 had singled out his recipe for Gratin

of Chicken and the mouthwatering picture accompanying it, I was off to the

market for another kosher chicken.

Source of Chicken in MilkThere

was some communality between the Oliver recipe and the Olney one. There was of course, the use of milk or

cream. And there was also a command to lemon in both recipes. In Oliver’s chicken, the zest of two whole

lemons is used. As you will see in the

recipe that follows, they even tell you that this zest will ‘split the milk’,

something I was determined not to happen in my Olney recipe. Olney himself

wrote “"The acidity of the white wine and the

lemon cause the cheese custard to curdle in the cooking, creating a texture

that, personally, I find pleasant but may not please everyone." So I left out the juice of half a

lemon called for and the white wine because the last thing I wanted was another

curdled custard or sauce. May I tell you

that this is conceivably one of the best chicken recipes I have made in a very

long time? The cream tenderizes the

chicken to beyond perfection. The cheese

and breadcrumbs are the perfect topping.

Served on a bed of rice with some simple haricots verts, this is a

dinner dish that will please all comers.

And if I could have a word with Mr. Oliver, I might be able to tell you

what on earth I did wrong with his recipe.

was bombarded with commenters telling me I was out of my mind not to love his

Recipe for Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk adapted from “Happy Days with

the Naked Chef” (Hachette Books, 2002)

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F and find a snug-fitting pot for

the chicken.

2. Season the chicken generously all over with salt and pepper and

fry it in the butter or olive oil, turning the chicken to get an even color all

over, until golden. Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and throw

away the butter left in the pot (or save for another use). This will leave you

with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan, which will give you a

lovely caramel flavor later on.

3. Put your chicken back in the pot with the rest of the

ingredients, then cook it in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours. Baste with the

cooking juice when you remember. (Oliver leaves the pot uncovered, but you can

leave it partially covered if you'd like it to retain more moisture and make

more sauce.) The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce, which

is absolutely fantastic.

4. To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide it on to

your plates. Spoon over plenty of juice and the little curds. Serve with wilted

spinach or greens and some mashed potato.

Recipe for Richard Olney’s Chicken Gratin adapted from

“Simple French Food” (Atheneum, 1974) Serves 4.

For the chicken:

One 2 1/2- to 3 1/2-pound fryer chicken, cut up (or

use all legs and thighs, or all breasts)

1 cup finely crumbled stale, but not dried, bread,

crusts removed

4 ounces freshly grated Gruyère

1. Heat the oven to 400° F. Salt the chicken pieces and cook

them in the butter over medium heat until nearly done and lightly colored on

all sides -- about 20 minutes, adding the breasts only after the first 10

minutes.

2. Transfer them to a gratin dish of a size to just hold them, arranged

side by side.

In a small skillet, cook the crumbs in the butter until

slightly crisp and only slightly colored -- still blond, stirring. Put them

aside.

Add the water to the pan to deglaze it. Let it reduce by

about half.

3. Whisk together the cream, egg yolks, seasonings, and

cheese, the deglazing liquid.

4. Spoon or pour this mixture evenly over the

chicken pieces, sprinkle the surface with the breadcrumbs, and bake 20 to 25

minutes or until the surface is nicely colored and the custard is firm.

5. Serve the chicken over rice and with a side of green beans if you'd like.