Not necessarily dry and rough, depends on the preparation. Of course if the bird is old, better to cook in broth / wine and long time. Last Christmas, I’ve tried to cook Bresse chicken twice with a grill, first time it was too dried, because it was overcooked. My fault, I should have double checked the cooking time with several recipes. Second time, I timed it correctly, it turned out great.
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Very lovely!
The concept of Fou de patisseries is they gather pastries from several pastries shops and sell them in 1 shop. Save you time to run everywhere in Paris to get them. They are usually cheaper than the pastry chef’s own shop. Since you mentioned they were prepared by hotel chefs, and for Taste of Paris, I guess they were cheaper than if you ordered them at the hotel.
I was under the impression Bresse chicken is for braises, and wouldn’t be used for a roast chicken.
Coq & Fils is the former Coq Rico and I see that the basic method hasn’t changed. Their trick to get chickens with dry, tough meat and less flavor that could be expected from those “premium” fowls I got from the kitchen itself and they were quite proud to give it to me: they poach the chickens in a low-temperature water bath for a few hours then fish them out and oven-roast them.
When I replied that this explained why my chicken was dry and tasteless, they were very disappointed, but who am I to question chefs’ decisions? They have kept doing the same thing. A lengthy poaching in warm water is the best way to extract the flavors. They go into the water, producing a very tasty broth, but none is left in the chicken. That also explains why their “crème de poulet”, the soup they make from the broth, is so tasty. So far it seems that they still haven’t understood the process.
Anyhow, I think that’s quite a waste of good-quality chickens and that has been going on for some time.
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Bresse chicken (poulet de Bresse) is only an AOC, a denomination of origin, with a charter for the breeding, chicken breed (gauloise blanche), and conditioning of the fowls, but it is only chicken and they come in all sizes and types. Some are chapons, some are poulardes, some are just chicken, some are large and better for braising, some are smaller and perfect for roasting. Actually, Bresse is primarily a roasting chicken.
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It’s my understanding that the Bresse chicken is notable for its flavor. Best in a braise or for stock. But since it is so well regarded, we often demand that it be roasted which is not a method that brings out its best, and perhaps its worst.
I agree. I made amazing stock with the remains of the chicken, after roasted because of the fat. I believed the first Bresse I cooked was a chapon and bigger in size, which ended up quite not as desirable, the heat was a bit too hot. The second one I cooked was a smaller chicken, more tender, easier to cook. I just want to rebel against the routine vin jaune braise!
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Roasting will bring out the best of Bresse chicken if the roasting is properly done, simply enough. Very few people can roast a chicken properly and deduce the roasting method from its age, size and general appearance.
It all goes with Bresse chicken as with all other chickens. Size matters. Also, the special breeding and feeding technique used for traditional Bresse chickens is meant to produce tender fowls that are perfect for roasting. Bresse chickens are most commonly roasted (slowly and lengthily) but they also can go into braised recipes like poulet au vinaigre, poulet à la crème et aux morilles, poulet au vin blanc.
There is no particular differentiation between chickens in France. The rule is: roast most of them and braise the larger ones if you fancy. All chickens should be flavorful, whether they’re meant for roasting or for any other treatment. Gournay chickens are the most flavorful of all and they’re equally delicious roasted or poached.
However the trick, with any good-quality chicken, is to carefully hold on to the bones after roasting and make stock from them.
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That sounds about right! A bit of a shame overall!
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Oh, okay. Thank you.
A mystery to me, frankly.
So what’s the proper way to roast a chicken?
I’ve given a bit of explanation in the end of the very sentence you’re quoting, for the sentence means nothing if cut in half. There is no single method. First you try to know where your chicken comes from, what breed it is, and how it was raised. Then you look at it, touch it, to get a notion of its consistency and of what kind of roasting it needs. Incidentally you should also think of what result you wish to get, and that takes care of the spicing and aromatics. Finally, depending on what you’ve got in your hands, you’ll roast quickly at high heat, or slowly at low heat, or use the quarter-of-a-turn-every-15 minutes method, or perhaps spit-roast if you’re able to do that, or spatchcock and roast, leave your chicken untrussed or truss it tightly (different results), baste it every 5 minutes or not at all, etc., and let it rest for a good 20 minutes before carving. I never know what I will do to a chicken until I hold it in my hands and take a good look at it.
No, really, the topic deserves a book.
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I sense you are planning such a book?
Of course not. No publisher wants that sort of thing. They want 60 cronut recipes for Christmas or Instagrammable recipes with plenty of pretty flowers and veggies on the plate.
Ah, I almost forgot: stuffed or unstuffed, that’s also a choice and means a different way of roasting.
