Dry-Brined Chicken with Cider Pan Drippings

Dry-Brined Chicken drum and wing served with Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Bacon, Apple-Sweet Potato Casserole, and corn pudding. That pudding recipe's coming up next.

This is the second of three turkey recipes available in the latest copy of the only magazine I get. Like the last turkey recipe, a chicken was substituted for the turkey and everything else was cut in half.

Dry-Brined Chicken with Cider Pan Drippings
adapted from Cooking Club, Fall 2013
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1 (5-6-lb) chicken
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
2 c apple cider
1 tsp poultry seasoning

Rub outside of chicken with salt and pepper. Tuck wing tips behind chicken; place on large rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate, uncovered, 24 hours.

I chose to tie the legs together too. And then I left it on the plate and put it in the fridge.


The skin got tighter after 24 hours, sort of like the one dry-rubbed chicken I did before. And notice that the chicken is sitting in a pool of liquid.

Heat oven to 375°F.

Place roasting rack on large shallow roasting pan; coat rack and pan with cooking spray. Place chicken breast-side up on rack; brush with oil.


After placing the chicken on a rack and brushing it with oil, I inserted a temperature probe into the breast; the starting temperature is 38.8°F.

Bake 30 minutes; reduce temperature to 325°F.

After 30 minutes, the temperature was at 90.3°F.

Add cider and poultry seasoning to roasting pan.

I don't know where I got the poultry seasoning recipe from, but it looks like it has sage, black pepper, paprika(?), celery seeds, oregano(?), rosemary.

Bake an additional 30-60 minutes or until internal temperature of thickest part of thigh reaches 170°F.

I prefer to aim for 160°F in the breast when I pull it out of the oven. Every time I've tried temping the thigh, it never comes out right. I think I always get it too close to the bone.

Remove chicken, cover loosely with foil; let stand 20 minutes before carving.

Behind with my side dish, I ended up letting the chicken stand for 60 minutes before I cut off a drum and wing.

Meanwhile, remove and discard fat from pan juices; place roasting pan over stovetop. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to scrape up any browned bits on bottom of pan. Boil 10-15 minutes or until slightly thickened. Serve chicken with pan juices.



I went through with defatting the pan juices (via fat separator) and then reducing it on the stove-top. And then I didn't even use it. The chicken was so juicy, I didn't think wetting the skin and meat was necessary. That said, the cider flavor was non-existing in my bird, so if you're going for the pan dripping flavor you don't want to omit the juices.

Even though the bird stood an hour after it came out of the oven, it was still warm and the skin, even on the hardly-browned drum, was still crisp! Dry-brining is definitely a winning technique. The back side of the chicken didn't get crisp like the top (breast) side of the bird and I attribute that to the fact that the back-side of the bird sat in liquid even after 24 hours of drying in the refrigerator. Next time, I'll put the bird on a rack or maybe, just maybe, putting it on a larger platter, like a rimmed baking sheet the recipe suggested, will be sufficient to move liquid away from the bird and evaporate.

Cost:

• chicken: $12.03
• olive oil: $0.33
• apple cider: $0.62

Total: $12.98 or about $3.25 for each of four servings.

Chicken Spoonbread

Part of the reason why I opted to do the Honey-Roasted Chicken was because of the recipes which use the leftovers; this is one of them. I'll be honest, you won't find the other one on this blog ever because I can't imagine eating a pancake made out of dressing. I just can't.

Chicken Spoonbread
adapted from Cooking Club, Oct/Nov 2010
click to print

1 c milk
1 3/4 c Cornbread-Sausage Dressing
8 oz. (1 1/2 c) shredded Honey-Roasted Chicken
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Bring milk to a simmer in medium saucepan over medium heat.

This took about 3 minutes.

Stir in dressing and cook 2 minutes or until thick.


Remove from heat; stir in chicken, cheddar cheese, and 2 eggs.


Pour into a greased 8-inch square baking dish; top with 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Call me hideous, but I used the same dish the chicken was originally stored in to bake the spoonbread. It was already greasy, so hey, optimize!

Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until browned.

Waiting for browning, I settled for hotness at 26 minutes. I was hungry!


Certainly not the most beautiful dish nor the most marvelous thing I've ever eaten, I do appreciate it for what it is. I mean, wth, leftover stuffing and chicken are combined to make a new dish! Including meat, my brain calculates this to be a main course. I had a quarter of the spoonbread with some yams and green beans; yes, I was satisfied.

Cost:

• milk: $0.24
• Cornbread-Sausage Dressing: $1.24
• Honey-Roasted Chicken: $3.05
• shredded cheddar cheese: $2.49
• eggs: $0.65

Total: $7.67 or about $1.92 for each of four giant servings or $0.96 for each of eight small servings.

Honey-Roasted Chicken

I'm going to have a small-scale Thanksgiving dinner before Halloween! Intended for turkey, this recipe was executed for a party of one; thus, a chicken. The chicken weighed approximately half of what the turkey was supposed to weigh; to compensate I cut all of the other ingredients in half. Certainly, I had doubts about how well that would work out since I didn't consider surface area, but whatever. It'll go well with the mac and cheese, leftover yam mash, and cornbread. There is a dressing recipe that goes with the bird, but I saved that part for later.

Honey-Roasted Chicken
adapted from Cooking Club
click to print

1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 (5-6-lb.) chicken, patted dry
1/4 c butter
1/4 c honey
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Heat oven to 375ºF. Place roasting rack in shallow roasting pan; coat rack and pan with cooking spray.

Combine 1 tablespoon thyme, 1 tablespoon salt and black pepper in small cup.


Rub spice mixture over chicken and into cavity. Tuck wing tips behind chicken; place breast-side up on rack.

I used my quarter-sheet pan which doesn't have a rack. I did spritz the pan with oil from the Misto before putting the chicken on it. The recipe didn't give indication that the bird should be trussed; I did a quick-and-easy tie-the-legs-together.

Bake 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt 1/2 cup butter in small saucepan over medium heat.


Remove from heat; whisk in honey and mustard.


Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Generously baste chicken with honey mixture.


Bake an additional 30-45 minutes or until internal temperature of the breast reaches 160ºF., basting every 30 minutes and covering loosely with foil if browning too quickly. Remove chicken, cover loosely with foil; let stand 20 minutes before carving.

Chicken right out of the oven, chilled 18 hours and then carved into pieces. Some pieces for now, some for later.


When my chicken was done roasting, it was about midnight-thirty. I let it cool to room temperature and then chilled it in the fridge until I was ready to eat. I know, weird, right? Still, the chicken turned out marvelously. Even after reheating a drumstick and two wings with sides on a plate in the oven (at 350°F for about 20 minutes), the chicken was tender and juicy. The skin wasn't perfectly crispy and I doubt it would've been even if I carved it 20 minutes after coming out of the oven. The honey is thick and weighs heavily on the skin. That equates to tasty, yes; crispy, no.

Essentially a simple recipe to execute and it looked really pretty after it was finished. I'm certain a turkey done this way would get lots of ooh's and aah's and mmm's!. And plus it's done with a bunch of stuff I (we?) normally have in the kitchen anyway, so no shopping for elusive mushrooms, pork pieces or herbs/spices.

Cost:

• chicken: $11.38
• butter: $0.20
• honey: $0.48
• Dijon mustard: $0.15

Total: about $12.21 or about $3.05 for each of 4 servings

Sticky Lemon Chicken and Champ

Okay, so the initial Ramsay recipes were good but not absolutely outstanding. The good-yet-not-absolutely-outstanding ones were quick ones, as far as time spent on recipe execution. And then I struck upon the time-consuming-ish stuffed chicken legs recipe which was exceptional. I'm not sure where this one will lie - it's straightforward and quick and maybe not so great? OR it's straightforward and quick yet totally awesome. As with all recipes, there's only one way to find out. Let's roll.

As usual, I had to Americanize the quantities in the ingredients list before I got started.

Sticky Lemon Chicken and Champ
adapted from Channel 4
click to print

Chicken
1 large chicken, jointed into 8–10 pieces
sea salt
black pepper
3–4 tbsp olive oil
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
Few thyme sprigs
Splash of sherry vinegar
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp honey
1 lemon, finely sliced (ideally with a mandolin)
Bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Champ
2.2 lbs Russet potatoes, peeled
sea salt
black pepper
2 tbsp butter
 6–8 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
100 mL heavy cream
100 mL whole milk, plus extra if needed

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over high heat.


Season the chicken with salt and pepper.


Brown the chicken pieces (in batches if necessary) with the garlic for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden brown.
 
I did two batches, reserving the first batch on a plate. The garlic went into the skillet with batch two. The splatter screen is definitely a good idea.

Return all the chicken to the pan, add the sherry vinegar and bubble until reduced by half.

This just took two minutes.

Drizzle the soy sauce and honey over the chicken, add the thyme, and shake the pan to mix.

The thyme was supposed to be added to the skillet with the chicken when it was browning. I goofed up and when realizing my error, threw the thyme in ASAP.

Pour in a good splash of hot water and add the lemon slices. Let the liquid bubble and reduce down until syrupy, which will take about 10 minutes or so. By now the chicken should be cooked through.


Meanwhile cut the potatoes into similar-sized chunks and bring to a boil in salted water for about 10 minutes, until tender when pierced with a small sharp knife. Drain well.

2 lbs of potatoes in my 3.5-quart saucepan.

Mash the potatoes while still hot, using a potato ricer if you have one.


Stir through the butter and spring onions.


Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan and bring just to the boil.

Oh poop, the milk and cream boiled over within 4 minutes. Keep an eye on this!

Gradually pour the warmed cream on to the potatoes, mixing well. If the mash is too thick, add a little extra milk. Season generously.

I used only about half the cream mixture.

Transfer the chicken to a platter and sprinkle over the chopped parsley, serve with the champ and green beans.

Crap, I didn't do the green beans.



Excellent! I learned that champ is mashed potatoes with green onions in it I'd call them mashed potatoes with green onions (or in the case of colcannon, cabbage) but they actually have names.

The chicken is nicely browned, glistening, lemon flavored, and juicy. The skin though, is a little too wet and rubbery for my preference so I wound up removing it before eating the chicken. Skin notwithstanding, the chicken is awesome! The only thing I regret is that I didn't have the green beans on the side like the original recipe suggested.

Just an FYI, I used 2.36 lbs of potatoes (mass before peeling) and only half the cream/milk to make the champ. Consider this if you try it.

One last thing, in case you're wondering how this compared to the stuffed legs. Didn't come close. Definitely second. Well, I did like the rice. And the wings. And the orechiette even though it was salty. Let's just say it wasn't as good as the stuffed legs.

Cost:

• chicken: $12.02
• olive oil: $0.24
• garlic: $0.36
• thyme: $0.50
• sherry vinegar: $0.47
• honey: $0.36
• lemon: $0.53
• flat leaf parsley: $0.59
• Russet potatoes: $1.63
• butter: $0.14
• spring onions: $0.49
• heavy cream: $0.41
• whole milk: $0.15

Total: $17.89 for about $4.47 for each of four servings.