Introducing French Chicken in a Pot

Published January 1, 2008.

 

Taking cues from a French technique for cooking chicken in a covered pot, we forgo crispy skin for succulent meat and unforgettable flavor.

The Problem

A conventionally roasted chicken often requires a tradeoff between crispy skin and intense chicken flavor.

The Goal

We wanted to focus exclusively on creating a chicken with tender, succulent meat bursting with concentrated chicken flavor.

The Solution

Poulet en cocotte is a classic French specialty—at its best, it's a whole chicken baked with root vegetables in a covered pot that delivers incredibly tender and juicy meat. Sounds simple, but when we tried to re-create the recipe at home, it proved to be a lot more challenging than simply throwing the chicken in a pot surrounded by vegetables. A particular problem was the humidity in the pot, which needed to be minimized to keep flavor from washing out. We removed the vegetables—the liquid they released made the pot too steamy—and cooked the chicken by itself (after browning it in a little oil to prevent it from sticking). We also tightly sealed the pot with foil before adding the lid. And cooking the chicken very slowly kept the breast meat from becoming tough. After developing the basic technique, we revisited the idea of vegetables, finding that a small amount of potently flavored aromatic vegetables could be added if they were lightly browned with the chicken to erase most of their moisture. Finally, defatting the liquid in the pot rewarded us with a richly flavored jus.