Roast Chicken and Sirloin

Roasted Chicken

Chicken in the oven roasting

½ oz salt
1/8 tsp pepper
¼ tsp dry rosemary, crushed finely in mortar
1 whole chicken, prepared
oil as needed
4 oz mirepoix, med dice
1 pt chicken stock
Buerre Maine as needed

1. Combine the salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary

2. Wash and dry chicken, rub outside skin and cavity with prepared seasonings. Rub with oil and truss the chicken

3. Lightly caramelize the mirepoix to remove excess moisture and place in roasting pan. Place a rack over mirepoix and set the chicken breast up on a rack in the roasting pan.

4. Oven sear the chicken in a pre heated oven at 425 F for 15 min, turn down heat to 350 and continue roasting, turning, and basting the chicken periodically to ensure even caramelizeation. Cook to an internal breast temp of 160 F

5. Remove the chicken and rest. (Cover if needed) over a low flame, deglaze the mirepoix with the chicken stock and bring to simmer. Reduce slightly and add beurre maine to make pan sauce.

6. Reduce sauce until proper consistency and flavor is reached, degrease thoroughly. Strain the pan sauce and season to taste.

IMPORTANT INFO: The point of trussing the chicken is to compact the chicken to help keep its shape, and the string should be tight.

a tightly trussed chicken

carved, plated chicken

You can stuff your chicken with aromatics (aka fresh herbs) as well as season it outside.

The breasts will cook before the legs and thighs, when this happens you can put a tent over the breast.

When the breast reaches an internal temperature of 160 it is finished. When the legs/thighs reach 180 it is finished.

There is a trick that HAROLD MCGEE came up with to help the breast and leg/thigh to be finished around the same time. Fill a zip lock bag up with ice and a little bit of salt. Put the chicken in the fridge and but the bag of ice on top of the breast part of the chicken. This will lower the temperature of the breast before you put it into the oven. By deboning the thighs, this will also help them cook faster – and more evenly with the breast.

Always baste the chicken with fat (i.e. butter) never chicken stock; this will dry your bird out. Fat creates a crispier skin, moisture, and adds flavor.

If you do not have a rack to roast your chicken on, you can use aluminum foil – crinkle it into the shape of a donut or sort of like a raft for your chicken to “float” on while in the pan.

When the breast is around 140 F – 150 F you can go ahead and put the mirepoix in the bottom of the pan – but you do NOT want it to burn! If this starts to happen add a bit of water.

In order to speed the process or have a back up for a gravy you can make a Velouté Sauce (which you can find under sauces) - make this while the chicken is cooking, when its done you can add the drippings and mirepoix from the pan, then strain and season.

When the chicken is finished, let it rest. If you cut it right away the juices will just spill out.

Carrot Puree (1 pt)

1 # carrots, large dice (rough cut okay)
1 oz clarified butter
1 tsp Harissa (or to taste)
¼ tsp cumin, toasted
2 tsp honey
2 oz whole butter
salt and pepper TT

1. Boil the carrots in salted water until very tender. Drain well

2. Return the carrots to the pan with 1 oz clarified butter. On low heat, dry out carrots to intensify the flavor. DON’T BROWN

3. Puree in food processor with remaining ingredients. Adjust seasonings - Hold for service.

boiling carrots

Harissa (yld 2 cups)

¼ # dry Ancho peppers, pureed (2 cup)
2.5 oz lemon juice
3 oz olive oil
2 tbs paprika
2 tsp cayenne
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 ½ tbs ground cumin
2 ½ tsp salt
¼ caraway
1 tsp minced garlic

1. soak the dried chilies in hot water – remove stems and all seeds

2. place the prepared chilies in just enough fresh hot water to cover

3. add other ingredients and puree with a wand mixer

4. adjust seasonings

The Harissa is like an Moroccan bbq sauce or ketchup.

You want to cook the carrots more tender then would normally – they have to be tender enough to puree.

To “DRY” the carrots – you put them back in pan with butter and let them cook down and soak up the butter. They should taste dry…

carrots "drying"

When pureeing add the harissa, add this to taste depending on how spicy it turned out. After pureeing if it tastes watering but doesn’t look watery add more salt.

pureeing carrots with a hand wand

This dish’s balance of flavor is very important – when tasting it after pureeing the carrots and other spices you should be able to taste the balance of salt with the carrot, they honey with the carrot, etc…It is important to think of these things when flavoring this dish and any other dish!

This dish was DELICIOUS! I could have eaten the whole bowl – but I had to share! It was easily the best part of our plate. Ours came out sweet from the honey. We didn’t get much spice from the harissa – so we could have added more but it was still yummy!

Wild Rice Pilaf (serves 2)

rice pilaf cooking on stovetop - before going in the oven

1 oz butter
1 oz onion, fine diced
1 c wild rice
2 c chicken stock
3 c water
salt and pepper TT

1. Heat butter in sauce pot, add onions and sweat. Add wild rice until well coated with butter

2. Add chicken stock, water and seasonings and bring to simmer, cover and cook in the oven. (or stovetop on low) for 1 ¼ hour or until tender – the rice must be puffed open like popcorn.

3. If a lot of liquid remains, remove the lid and boil the rice dry. This happens first.

I personally love wild rice I think it needs a lot of salt, which is probably why I like it because anything with salt has already won me over.

With rice you normally don’t stir it. But with wild rice you can stir it a little bit. When the rice is done it sort of pops open like popcorn – I may still be slightly al dente.

If there is too much liquid and all the rice had “popped’ you can run the rice through a chinois, to get rid of that excess water. This recipe says that it serves 2 but I think it is more like 4.

finished plate

Here is a picture of our finished plate… there are few things about plating that are important. This plate is actually a really good example of a lot of things not to do.

1. Everything should be in odds (1, 3, 5) until you reach 6 then you can have even numbers… notice there are only two rice mounds – there should either be one or three.

2. The bone of the meat should never be pointing towards your guest… or hidden… this plate as both of those things. (oops)

3. The linear line of the carrot puree apparently is not pleasing… this kind of cuts the plate in half, which isn’t good.

4. Always make sure there is negative space on the plate

5. Always make sure the food doesn’t go over the rim of the plate…keep it in the center.

Roasted Squash Soup

Soup before it was pureed.

1 acorn squash
¼ # onion, chopped coarsely
1 fl oz olive oil
Salt and black pepper TT
¼ tsp dried thyme
2 c chicken stock
2 c water
1 of roasted garlic puree
Parsley, chopped – garnish and baguette bread

1. Peel, seed, and chop squash into large dice. Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and spread out on a try. Roast a 325 F oven, turning as necessary to cook as evenly until tender

2. In a tall soup pot, sweat onions in olive oil until translucent. Add squash, chicken stock, water, and other ingredients

3. Simmer soup, adjusting consistency and season as necessary, for 30 min

4. Allow to cool for 10 min then puree. Return to pot to finish consistency and season

5. Serve garnished with parsley and toasted baguette slices.

soup pre - pureed

This soup was really good as well. Our table did a few things different along the way. Instead of cutting the squash up into large dice we baked it whole at 425 F for 1-½ hours. (Basically cook until completely tender).

Once tender we took it out and skinned it. Then added to the cooked onion, roasted garlic. Instead of using 2 cup I used 1-cup chicken stock and 1 cup cream and ¼ cup of water. I also did not simmer it for 30 min after the squash was added to everything, only for like 10 min then I pureed it. After I pureed it I ran it through a chinois.

Roast Prime Rib of Beef Au Jus

finished sirloin

Oven ready rib roast, IMPS #109, approx 16 lbs

Salt and pepper TT

Garlic, peeled and chopped TT

1 # mirepoix, medium chop

2 qt brown stock

1. Pull back the netting, fold back the fat cap and season the roast well with salt and pepper, garlic. Replace the fat cap and netting; place the roast in a pan. Roast at 300-325 F

2. Add the mirepoix to the pan approx 45 min before its done. Cook till internal temp is 125 – about 3-4 hours, carry over will raise to 138

3. Remove from pan and allow to rest in warm place 30 min

4. Drain the excess fat, reserving the mirepoix and any drip

5. Caramelize the mirepoix, allow the liquids to evaporate, leaving any brown drippings

6. Deglaze the pan with the stock. Stir to loosen all the drippings

7. Simmer the jus, reducing it slightly and allowing the mirepoix to release its flavor – season with salt and pepper

8. Strain the jus through a china cap lined with cheesecloth. Skim any remaining fat from the surface

9. Remove netting from the roast. Trim and slice 1-2 oz per person.

sirloin before it was cut into 1-1 1/2 lb portions for each table

SO as most of you know I did not eat red meat. So I cannot tell you whether or not this was good or not I can tell how we made it! (According to my classmates it was delicious though)

First of all we ended up making a sirloin instead of prime rib.

We decided to make a “Caramelized Sirloin” we made a brown sugar, salt and pepper rub. Then we grilled it before roasting in order to caramelize the sugar onto to the roast. We added the mirepoix when we put the sirloin in the oven.

For medium rare we cooked it at 425 for about 15 min a lb.

We trussed the sirloin before we cooking it. The reason we truss is so that the meat keeps its shape.

sirloin on the grill

Potatoes Anna (serves 4)

1 ¼ # potatoes, prepared

Clarified butter, as needed

Salt and pepper TT

1. Peel, wash, and trim the potatoes, cut them into thin slices. DO not was or store in water after slicing

2. Warm a skillet sufficiently and quickly arrange the sliced potatoes in a skilled, over lapping the slices. Sprinkle with clarified butter, salt and pepper brown layers

3. Begin cooking the potatoes in the stove over med heat until they sizzle – cover with parchment paper lid and bake @ 375 for 30-45

4. Drain off any fat. It can be reused

5. Turn the potatoes over onto a plate and slice the potato cake into wedges and serve by the slice.

finished potatoes anna - with hotel butter on top

These were YUMMY… The most important part of this recipe is slicing the potatoes thin… the thicker they are the longer the will take to cook. Also you want them to be same thickness so that they all cook at the same speed.

The potatoes should be arranged in the pan like a deck of cards. You will know they are finished when a knife slides in and out easily of a potato. The only thing that went slightly wrong with this dish was when I flipped them onto the plate the bottom layer decided to stay in the pan…I removed them my self and layered them on top- which like this looks fine, but when you try to cut them into pie shapes it doesn’t work as well. Still tastes delicious!

Stuffed Tomatoes with Duxelles

stuffed tomatoes

2 oz clarified butter
1 oz onion, fine dice
12 oz mushroom, fine chop
1 tbs parsley, minced
salt and pepper TT
4 each Roma tomatoes, peeled and seeded

1. Heat sauté pan with butter, add the onion and sweat until translucent

2. Add the mushrooms. Some liquid will cook out of the mushrooms. Cooking till liquid has evaporated

3. Season with salt and pepper to taste, finish with parsley

4. Peel the tomatoes, cut off the top and deseed. Season with salt and pepper, stuff with prepared duxelles

5. Reheat in a 375 F oven until hot.

The trick to these is to cut the onion and mushrooms very finely. You can also do this with a food processor. To add a little zing to this dish you could top it with a non - melting cheese, when you reheat the tomatoes.

Hotel Butter

parsley and butter mixed

1 # butter, softened
½ bunch of parsley, minced washed
½ oz lemon juice
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

1. Combine all ingredients as listed

2. Pipe into rosettes using pastry bag or roll in parchment paper

3. Refrigerate or freeze until needed

Here is our finished plate of “Caramelized” Sirloin, butternut squash soup, Potatoes Anna, stuffed tomatoes duxelles, and broccoli with hollandaise sauce.