April 2017 - Homecooking DOTM (Inaugural Edition) - CHICKEN AND RICE

I know we all like Chicken and rice. BTW, isn’t it time we decide for the theme of next month?

That sounds like such a fun project! It looks very good.

I added the rice for only the last ten minutes, since it was already cooked,. I did much tossing of the rice every couple minutes to make sure it was warming evenly and getting nicely coated with the chicken juices. It did get a nice little bit of crust when I let it sit in the pan for the last few minutes, but not overwhelmingly hard and or overdone.

Here is the recipe, for timing. Of course, use your judgment, depending on the chick n you are using. Also, I have found the key to this recipe (other than a very excellent chicken), is a cast iron pan. It really makes a difference.

Notes:

  • Don’t rinse the chicken, just pat dry, then salt it.
  • Don’t “loosely cover,” just salt the chicken and stick it uncovered at the bottom of your fridge for a day or two. I’ve let it sit for four days, and it was fine.
  • I preheated my cast iron pan at 500, and used that heat for the first 10 minutes.
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Thanks.

It is such an easy roast chicken. People have built a cult around it, but it’s one of the easiest recipes out there, honestly. Really hard to mess up. :slight_smile:

@Bookwich has started the nomination thread for May 2017 here:

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Hi -

[quote=“Bookwich, post:85, topic:8972”]
other than a very excellent chicken
[/quote]What chickens do you like to buy?

Thanks!

Hi @naf -

Excellent. Interesting cooking methods. What is the consistency of the stuffing after cooking in the chicken in the liquid?

Thanks!

Hi @Presunto -

I’m going to make the Red Cooked Chicken tomorrow.

I guess this is a question for the group. We have a decent Asian Market close by, but I wanted to get the chicken somewhere else; this place didn’t have Shaoxing Rice Wine. Would you substitute it with Sherry or Mirin w/sugar added?

I also have this Plum Wine.

Thanks!

Hi -

[quote=“fooddabbler, post:74, topic:8972”]
CRISP-SKINNED CHICKEN, VEGETABLES AND LEFTOVER RICE
[/quote]The skin and the vegetables look nicely carmelized and your carrots still look vibrant.

Nice!

Looks like my kind of soup: clear chicken broth, citrus-y, touch of parsley :yum:.

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Hi @TheCookie
Shaoxing Rice isn’t that sweet, and has a deeper bitter edge that gives the dish distinguish Chinese flavour. The closest I think would be sake, which is also a rice wine, if you can find one. The next choice, I will choose Mirin, but bear in mind that the dish will be sweeter than using Shaoxing rice wine. Mirin is lower grade sake for cooking, with a lower alcohol content and higher sugar content.

Since I make the stuffing more than enough, I have therefore that in 2 cooking method. The stuffing cooked in the soup was just cooked as it should, tender. It was not too difficult with the meatball I made aside except the meatball were roasted and have that grill flavour. I think the chicken liver gave that lightness. You can use sausage and add the liver, parsley and bread crumb. I omitted the cured ham in the recipe, to compensate that more salt should be added. But if you want a lighter version, you can ignore the stuffing together.

I used a smaller 1.2kg chicken (not a hen of 2 kg) and still we (2 of us) had several meals to finish everything off. I would recommend adding more vegetables, like onion, garlic, carrot, when cooking the chicken. My husband isn’t a soup person, he likes this dish.

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Not homemade, but Friday night we had a spring veggie and chicken paella. There was artichokes, peas, green beans, asparagus, and dark and white meat chicken.

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Hi @naf -

Oh shoot. They had an array of 6-8 oz. sakes. But one of the guys suggested the plum wine for a little sweeter flavor.

I guess you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Most suggestions for an alternative were dry sherry (which I have), but a few said mirin with sugar, leading me to believe it was a sweeter rice wine. No worries, I thought I had fennel seeds, so will also pick-up shaoxing or sake as well.

I’ll post dish later. Thanks!

Ahhh… I didn’t get from the pictures that it was a soup, and the recipe is in French :slight_smile:. Thanks!

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To close out the month (18 minutes past the deadline on the East coast of the U.S.), this just showed up on the NYT online:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/68861692-nyt-cooking/4388705-chicken-and-rice-is-very-nice?contentCollection=smarter-living&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

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Sherry is a perfectly acceptable substitute, even the cheap stuff.

Mirin or plum wine are too sweet. It’s better to use a dry fortified wine.

The editors were probably following our thread, and thought it was a great idea for an article. :wink:

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Have to be registered to get. :disappointed:

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